PALMETTO -LEAVES 


HARRIET    BEECHKR    STOWE. 


ILLUSTRATED. 


BOSTON : 
JAMES    R.   OSGOOD    AND    COMPANY, 

([.ATE  TICKNOK  &  Flh-LDS,    AND    FIELDS,  OSGOOD,  &  CO.) 
I873- 


FS!  7 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1873, 

BY  JAMES  R.  OSGOOD  &  CO., 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


Boston : 
Stereotyped  and  Printed  by  Rand,  A  very,  <5r»  Co.  , 


CONTENTS. 


NOBODY'S  Doc; ' l 

A  FLOWERY  JANUARY  IN  FLORIDA J6 

THE  WRONG  SIDE  OF  THE  TAPESTRY 26 

A  LETTER  TO  THE  GIRLS 4° 

A  WATER-COACH,  AND  A  RIDE  IN  IT S3 

PICNICKING  UP  JULINGTON 69 

MAGNOLIA 87 

YELLOW  JESSAMINES 97 

"FLORIDA  FOR  INVALIDS" "6 

SWAMPS  AND  ORANGE-TREES 137 

LETTER-WRITING 148 

MAGNOLIA  WEEK 161 

BUYING  LAND  IN  FLORIDA i;5 

OUR  EXPERIENCE  IN  CROPS 185 

MAY  IN  FLORIDA 196 

ST.  AUGUSTINE 2°6 

OUR  NEIGHBOR  OVER  THE'  WAY -         •  225 

TIIF.  GRAND  TOUR  UP  RIVER       ........  347 

OLD  CUDJO  AND  THE  ANGEL 267 

THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH     .         .....••  279 


PEBNARD  MOSES 


MAP  OF  THE   ST.  JOHN   RIVER,    FLORIDA. 


NOBODY'S  DOG. 

|ES,  here  he  comes  again  !  Look  at 
him  !  Whose  dog  is  he  ?  We  are 
sitting  around  the  little  deck-house 
of  the  Savannah  steamer,  in  that  languid  state 
of  endurance  which  befalls  voyagers,  when, 
though  the  sky  is  clear,  and  the  heavens  blue, 
and  the  sea  calm  as  a  looking-glass,  there  is 
yet  that  gentle,  treacherous,  sliding  rise  and  fall, 
denominated  a  ground-swell. 

Reader,  do  you  remember  it  ?     Of  all  deceit- 

1     781118 


2  '  '  'PXLAfETTO-LEA  VES. 

ful  demons  of  the  deep,  this  same  smooth,  slip 
pery,  cheating  ground-swell  is  the  most  diabolic. 
Because,  you  see,  he  is  a  mean  imp,  an  under 
handed,  unfair,  swindling  scamp,  who  takes  from 
you  all  the  glory  of  endurance.  Fair  to  the  eye, 
plausible  as  possible,  he  says  to  you,  "  What's 
the  matter?  What  can  you  ask  brighter  than 
this  sky,  smoother  than  this  sea,  more  glossy 
and  calm  than  these  rippling  waves  ?  How  for 
tunate  that  you  have  such  an  exceptionally 
smooth  voyage  ! " 

And  yet  look  around  the  circle  of  pale  faces 
fixed  in  that  grim  expression  of  endurance,  the 
hands  belonging  to  them  resolutely  clasping 
lemons,  —  those  looks  of  unutterable,  repressed 

disgust  and  endurance.     Are  these  people  sea- 

i 
sick  ?     Oh,   no !    of  course  not.     "  Of   course," 

says  the  slippery,  plausible  demon,  "  these  peo 
ple  can't  be  sick  in  this  delightful  weather,  and 
with  this  delightful,  smooth  sea !  " 


NOBODY'S  DOG.  3 

But  here  comes  the  dog,  now  slowly  droop 
ing  from  one  to  another,  —  the  most  woe-begone 
and  dejected  of  all  possible  dogs.  Not  a  bad- 
looking  dog,  either ;  not  without  signs  about  him 
of  good  dog  blood. 

We  say  one  to  another,  as  we  languidly  review 
his  points,  "  His  hair  is  fine  and  curly :  he  has 
what  might  be  a  fine  tail,  were  it  not  drooping  in 
such  abject  dejection  and  discouragement.  Evi 
dently  this  is  a  dog  that  has  seen  better  days,  — 
a  dog  that  has  belonged  to  somebody,  and  taken 
kindly  to  petting."  His  long  nose,  and  great 
limpid,  half-human  eyes,  have  a  suggestion  of 
shepherd-dog  blood  about  them. 

He  comes  and  seats  himself  opposite,  and 
gazes  at  you  with  a  pitiful,  wistful,  intense  gaze, 
as  much  as  to  say,  "Oh  !  do  you  know  where 

*:.• 

HE  is  ?  and  how  came  I  here  ?  —  poor,  miserable 
dog  that  I  am  !"  He  walks  in  a  feeble,  discour 
aged  way  to  the  wheel-house,  and  sniffs  at  the 


4  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

salt  water  that  spatters  there;  gives  one  lick, 
and  stops,  and  comes  and  sits  quietly  down 
again  :  it's  "  no  go." 

"  Poor  fellow.!  he's  thirsty,"  says  one ;  and  the 
Professor,  albeit  not  the  most  nimble  of  men, 
climbs  carefully  down  the  cabin-stairs  for  a  tum 
bler  of  water,  brings  it  up,  and  places  it  before 
him.  Eagerly  he  laps  it  all  up  ;  and  then,  with 
the  confiding  glance  of  a  dog  not  unused  to 
kindness,  looks  as  if  he  would  like  more. 
Another  of  the  party  fills  his  tumbler,  and  he 
drinks  that. 

"  Why,  poor  fellow,  see  how  thirsty  he  was  ! " 
"  I  wonder  whose  dog  he  is  ?  "  "  Somebody  ought 
to  see  to  this  dog ! "  are  comments  passing 
round  among  the  ladies,  who  begin  throwing 
him  bits  of  biscuit,  which  he  snaps  up  eagerly. 

"  He's  hungry  too.  Only  see  how  hungry  he 
is  !  Nobody  feeds  this  dog.  Whom  does  he 
belong  to  ? " 


NOBODY >S  DOG.  5 

One  of  the  ship's  stewards,  passing,  throws  in 
a  remark,  "  That  dog's  seasick  :  that's  what's  the 
matter  with  him.  It  won't  do  to  feed  that  dog ; 
it  won't :  it'll  make  terrible  work." 

Evidently  some  stray  dog,  that  has  come 
aboard  the  steamer  by  accident,  —  looking  for  a 
lost  master,  perhaps  ;  and  now  here  he  is  alone 
and  forlorn.  Nobody's  dog  ! 

One  of  the  company,  a  gentle,  fair-haired 
young  girl,  begins  stroking  his  rough,  dusty  hair, 
which  though  fine,  and  capable  of  a  gloss  if 
well  kept,  now  is  full  of  sticks  and  straws.  An 
unseemly  patch  of  tar  disfigures  his  coat  on  one 
side,  which  seems  to  worry  him  :  for  he  bites  at 
it  now  and  then  aimlessly  ;  then  looks  up  with  a 
hopeless,  appealing  glance,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  I 
know  I  am  looking  like  a  fright ;  but  I  can't  help 
it.  Where  is  HE  ?  and  where  am  I  ?  and  what 
does  it  all  mean  ? " 

But  the  caresses  of  the  fair-haired  lady  inspire 


6  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

him  with  a  new  idea.  He  will  be  "nobody's 
dog  "  no  longer :  he  will  choose  a  mistress. 

From  that  moment  he  is  like  a  shadow  to  the 
fair-haired  lady :  he  follows  her  steps  every 
where,  mournful,  patient,  with  drooping  tail  and 
bowed  head,  as  a  dog  not  sure  of  his  position, 
but  humbly  determined  to  have  a  mistress  if 
dogged  faith  and  persistency  can  compass  it. 
She  walks  the  deck ;  and  tick,  tick,  pitapat,  go 
the  four  little  paws  after  her.  She  stops : 
he  stops,  and  looks  wistful.  Whenever  and 
wherever  she  sits  down,  he  goes  and  sits  at  her 
feet,  and  looks  up  at  her  with  eyes  of  unutterable 
entreaty. 

The  stewards  passing  through  the  deck-house 
give  him  now  and  then  a  professional  kick  ;  and 
he  sneaks  out  of  one  door  only  to  walk  quietly 
round  a  corner  and  in  at  the  other,  and  place 
himself  at  her  feet.  Her  party  laugh,  and  rally 
her  on  her  attractions.  She  now  and  then  pats 


NOBODY'S  DOG.  7 

and  caresses  and  pities  him,  and  gives  him 
morsels  of  biscuit  out  of  her  stores.  Evidently 
she  belongs  to  the  band  of  dog-lovers.  In  the 
tedious  dulness.  of  the  three-days'  voyage  the  dog 
becomes  a  topic,  and  his  devotion  to  the  fair- 
haired  lady  an  engrossment. 

We  call  for  his  name.  The  stewards  call  him 
"  Jack : "  but  he  seems  to  run  about  as  well  for 
one  name  as  another ;  and  it  is  proposed  to  call 
him  "Barnes,"  from  the  name  of  the  boat  we 
are  on.  The  suggestion  drops,  from  want  of 
energy  in  our  very  demoralized  company  to 
carry  it.  Not  that  we  are  seasick,  one  of  us : 
oh,  no  !  Grimly  upright,  always  at  table,  and 
eating  our  three  meals  a  day,  who  dares  intimate 
that  we  are  sick  ?  Perish  the  thought !  It  is 
only  a  dizzy,  headachy  dulness,  with  an  utter 
disgust  for  every  thing  in  general,  that  creeps 
over  us ;  and  Jack's  mournful  face  reflects  .but 
too  truly  our  own  internal  troubles. 


8  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

But  at  last  here  we  are  at  Savannah  and  the 
Scriven  House  ;  and  the  obliging  waiters  rush 
out  and  take  us  in  and  do  for  us  with  the  most 
exhaustive  attention.  Here  let  us  remark  on 
the  differences  in  hotels.  In  some  you  are 
waited  on  sourly,  in  some  grudgingly,  in  some 
carelessly,  in  some  with  insolent  negligence. 
At  the  Scriven  House  you  are  received  like 
long-expected  friends.  Every  thing  is  at  your 
hand,  and  the  head  waiter  arranges  all  as  benig- 
nantly  as  if  he  were  really  delighted  to  make 
you  comfortable.  So  we  had  a  golden  time  at 
the  Scriven  House,  where  there  is  every  thing 
to  make  the  wayfarer  enjoy  himself. 

Poor  Jack  was  overlooked  in  the  bustle. of  the 
steamer  and  the  last  agonies  of  getting  landed. 
We  supposed  we  had  lost  sight  of  him  forever. 
But  lo !  when  the  fair-haired  lady  was  crossing 
the  hall  to  her  room,  a  dog,  desperate  and  dusty, 
fought  his  way  through  the  ranks  of  waiters  to 
get  to  her. 


NOBODY'S  DOG.  9 

"  It  isn't  our  dog  ;  put  him  out  gently  ;  don't 
hurt  him,"  said  the  young  lady's  father. 

But  Jack  was  desperate,  and  fought  for  his 
mistress,  and  bit  the  waiter  that  ejected  him,  and 
of  course  got  kicked  with  emphasis  into  the 
street. 

The  next  morning,  one  of  our  party,  looking 
out  of  the  window,  saw  Jack  watching  slyly  out 
side  of  the  hotel.  Evidently  he  was  waiting  for 
an  opportunity  to  cast  himself  at  the  feet  of  his 
chosen  protectress. 

"  If  I  can  only  see  her,  all  will  yet  be  right," 
he  says  to  himself. 

We  left  Savannah  in  the  cars  that  afternoon  ; 
and  the  last  we  heard  of  Jack,  he  had  been  seen 
following  the  carriage  of  his  elected  mistress  in 
a  drive  to  Bonaventure. 

What  was  the  end  of  the  poor  dog's  romance 
we  have  never  heard.  Whether  he  is  now  blessed 
in  being  somebody's  dog,  —  petted,  cared  for, 


10  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

caressed,  —  or  whether  he  roves  the  world  deso 
late-hearted  as  "  nobody's  dog,"  with  no  rights 
to  life,  liberty,  or  pursuit  of  happiness,  we  have 
no  means  of  knowing. 

But  the  measureless  depth  of  dumb  sorrow, 
want,  woe,  entreaty,  that  there  are  in  a  wander 
ing  dog's  eyes,  is  something  that  always  speaks 
much  to  us,  —  dogs  in  particular  which  seem  to 
leave  their  own  kind  to  join  themselves  to  man, 
and  only  feel  their  own  being  complete  when 
they  have  formed  a  human  friendship.  It  seems 
like  the  ancient  legends  of  those  incomplete 
natures,  a  little  below  humanity,  that  needed  a 
human  intimacy  to  develop  them.  How  much 
dogs  suffer  mentally  is  a  thing  they  have  no 
words  to  say ;  but  there  is  no  sorrow  deeper  than 
that  in  the  eyes  of  a  homeless,  friendless,  mas- 
terless  dog.  We  rejoice,  therefore,  to  learn  that 
one  portion  of  the  twenty  thousand  dollars 
which  the  ladies  of  Boston  have  raised  for  "  Our 


NOBODY'S  DOG.  II 

Dumb  Animals  "  is  about  to  be  used  in  keeping 
a  home  for  stray  dogs. 

Let  no  one  sneer  at  this.  If,  among  the  "  five 
sparrows  sold  for  two  farthings,"  not  one  is  for 
gotten  by  our  Father,  certainly  it  becomes  us 
not  to  forget  the  poor  dumb  companions  of  our 
mortal  journey,  capable,  with  us,  of  love  and  its 
sorrows,  of  faithfulnesss  and  devotion.  There  is, 
we  are  told,  a  dog  who  haunts  the  station  at 
Revere,  daily  looking  for  the  return  of  a  master 
he  last  saw  there,  and  who,  alas  !  will  never 
return.  There  are,  many  times  and  oft,  dogs 
strayed  from  families,  accustomed  to  kindness 
and  petting,  who  have  lost  all  they  love,  and  have 
none  to  care  for  them.  To  give  such  a  refuge, 
till  they  find  old  masters  or  new,  seems  only  a 
part  of  Christian  civilization. 

The  more  Christ's  spirit  prevails,  the  more  we 
feel  for  all  that  can  feel  and  suffer.  The  poor 
brute  struggles  and  suffers  with  us,  companion 


1 2  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

of  our  mysterious  travel  in  this  lower  world  ;  and 
who  has  told  us  that  he  may  not  make  a  step 
upward  in  the  beyond  ?  For  our  own  part,  we 
like  that  part  of  the  poor  Indian's  faith,  — 

"  That  thinks,  admitted  to  yon  equal  sky, 
His  faithful  dog  shall  bear  him  company." 

So  much  for  poor  Jack.  Now  for  Savannah. 
It  is  the  prettiest  of  Southern  cities,  laid  out  in 
squares,  planted  with  fine  trees,  and  with  a  series 
of  little  parks  intersecting  each  street,  so  that 
one  can  walk  on  fine  walks  under  trees  quite 
through  the  city,  down  to  a  larger  park  at  the 
end  of  all.  Here  "there  is  a  fountain  whose 
charming  sculpture  reminds  one  of  those  in  the 
south  of  France.  A  belt  of  ever-blooming 
violets  encircles  it ;  and  a  well-kept  garden  of 
flowers,  shut  in  by  an  evergreen  hedge,  surrounds 
the  whole.  It  is  like  a  little  bit  of  Paris,  and 
strikes  one  refreshingly  who  has  left  New  York 
two  days  before  in  a  whirling  snow-storm. 


NOBODY'S  DOG.  13 

I 

The  thing  that  every  stranger  in  Savannah 
goes  to  see,  as  a  matter  of  course,  is  Bona- 
venture. 

This  is  an  ancient  and  picturesque  estate, 
some  miles  from  the  city,  which  has  for  years 
been  used  as  a  cemetery. 

How  shall  we  give  a  person  who  has  never 
seen  live-oaks  or  gray  moss  an  idea  of  it  ? 

Solemn  avenues  of  these  gigantic  trees,  with 
their  narrow  evergreen  leaves,  their  gnarled, 
contorted  branches  feathered  with  ferns  and 
parasitic  plants,  and  draped  with  long  swaying 
draperies  of  this  gray,  fairy-like  moss,  impress 
one  singularly.  The  effect  is  solemn  and  un 
earthly  ;  and  the  distant  tombs,  urns,  and  obelisks 
gleaming  here  and  there  among  the  shadows 
make  it  more  impressive. 

Beneath  the  trees,  large  clumps  of  palmetto, 
with  their  waving  green  fans,  give  a  tropical 
suggestion  to  the  scene  ;  while  yellow  jessamine 


14  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

wreathe  and  clamber  from  tree  to  tree,  or  weave 
mats  of  yellow  blossoms  along  the  ground.  It 
seems  a  labyrinth  of  fairy  grottoes,  and  is  in 
its  whole  impression  something  so  unique,  that 
no  one  should  on  any  account  miss  of  seeing  it. 

Savannah  is  so  pleasant  a  city,  and  the  hotels 
there  are  so  well  kept,  that  many  find  it  far 
enough  south  for  all  their  purposes,  and  spend 
the  winter  there.  But  we  are  bound  farther 
towards  the  equator,  and  so  here  we  ponder  the 
question  of  our  onward  journey. 

A  railroad  with  Pullman  sleeping-cars  takes 
one  in  one  night  from  Savannah  to  Jacksonville, 
Fla. ;  then  there  is  a  steamboat  that  takes  one 
round  by  the  open  sea,  and  up  through  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  John's  River,  to  Jacksonville. 
Any  one  who  has  come  to  see  scenery  should 
choose  this  route.  The  entrance  of  the  St. 
John's  from  the  ocean  is  one  of  the  most  singu 
lar  and  impressive  passages  of  scenery  that  we 


NOBODY^S  DOG.  1 5 

ever  passed  through :  in  fine  weather  the  sight 
is  magnificent. 

Besides  this,  a  smaller  boat  takes  passengers 
to  Jacksonville  by  what  is  called  the  inside  pass 
age,  —  a  circuitous  course  through  the  network 
of  islands  that  lines  the  shore.  This  course  also 
offers  a  great  deal  of  curious  interest  to  one  new 
to  Southern  scenery,  and  has  attractions  for 
those  who  dread  the  sea.  By  any  of  these 
courses  Florida  may  be  gained  in  a  few  hours 
or  days,  more  or  less,  from  Savannah. 


A   FLOWERY  JANUARY  IN   FLORIDA. 

MANDARIN,  FLA.,  Jan,  24,  1872. 
;ES,  it  is  done.  The  winter  is  over  and 
past,  and  "  the  time  of  the  singing  of 
birds  is  come."  They  are  at  it  beak 
and  claw,  —  the  red-birds,  and  the  cat-birds,  and 
the  chattering  jays,  and  the  twittering  sparrows, 
busy  and  funny  and  bright.  Down  in  the 
swamp-land  fronting  our  cottage,  four  calla-lily 
buds  are  just  unfolding  themselves ;  and  in  the 
little  garden-plat  at  one  side  stand  rose-geraniums 
and  camellias,  white  and  pink,  just  unfolding. 

16 


A   FLOWERY  JANUARY.  17 

Right  opposite  to  the  window,  through  which  the 
morning  sun  is  pouring,  stands  a  stately  orange- 
tree,  thirty  feet  high,  with  spreading,  graceful  top, 
and  varnished  green  leaves,  full  of  golden  fruit. 
These  are  the  veritable  golden  apples  of  the 
Hesperides,  —  the  apples  that  Atalanta  threw  in 
the  famous  race  ;  and  they  are  good  enough  to 
be  run  after.  The  things  that  fill  the  New- York 
market,  called  by  courtesy  "  oranges,"  —  pithy, 
wilted,  and  sour,  —  have  not  even  a  suggestion 
of  what  those  golden  balls  are  that  weigh  down 
the  great  glossy  green  branches  of  yonder  tree. 
At  the  tree's  foot,  Aunt  Katy  does  her  weekly 
washing  in  the  open  air  the  winter  through. 
We  have  been  putting  our  tape-measure  about 
it,  and  find  it  forty-three  inches  in  girth  ;  and  for 
shapely  beauty  it  has  no  equal.  It  gives  one  a 
sort  of  heart-thrill  of  possession  to  say  of  such 
beauty,  "  It  is  mine."  No  wonder  the  Scripture 
says,  "  He  that  is  so  impoverished  that  he  hath 


1 8  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

no  oblation  chooseth  a  tree  that  will  not  rot." 
The  orange-tree  is,  in  our  view,  the  best  worthy 
to  represent  the  tree  of  life  of  any  that  grows 
on  our  earth.  It  is  the  fairest,  the  noblest,  the 
most  generous,  it  is  the  most  upspringing  and 
abundant,  of  all  trees  which  the  Lord  God 
caused  to  grow  eastward  in  Eden.  Its  wood  is 
white  and  hard  and  tough,  fit  to  sustain  the 
immense  weight  of  its  fruitage.  Real  good  ripe 
oranges  are  very  heavy  ;  and  the  generosity  of 
the  tree  inclines  it  to  fruit  in  clusters.  We 
counted,  the  other  day,  a  cluster  of  eighteen, 
hanging  low,  and  weighing  down  the  limb. 

But  this  large  orange-tree,  and  many  larger 
than  this,  which  are  parts  of  one  orchard,  are 
comparatively  recent  growths.  In  1835,  every 
one  of  them  was  killed  even  with  the  ground. 
Then  they  started  up  with  the  genuine  pluck  of 
a  true-born  orange-tree,  which  never  says  die, 
and  began  to  grow  again.  Nobody  pruned  them, 


A   FLOWERY  JANUARY.  19 

or  helped  them,  or  cared  much  about  them  any 
way  ;  and  you  can  see  trees  that  have  grown  up 
in  four,  five,  and  six  trunks, — just  as  the  suckers 
sprung  up  from  the  roots.  Then,  when  they  had 
made  some  progress,  came  the  orange-insect,  and 
nearly  killed  them  down  again.  The  owners  of 
the  land,  discouraged,  broke  down  the  fences, 
and  moved  off;  and  for  a  while  the  land  was 
left  an  open  common,  where  wild  cattle  browsed, 
and  rubbed  themselves  on  the  trees.  But  still, 
in  spite  of  all,  they  have  held  on  their  way 
rejoicing,  till  now  they  are  the  beautiful  crea 
tures  they  are.  Truly  we  may  call  them  trees 
of  the  Lord,  full  of  sap  and  greenness  ;  full  of 
lessons  of  perseverance  to  us  who  get  frosted 
down  and  cut  off,  time  and  time  again,  in  our 
lives.  Let  us  hope  in  the  Lord,  and  be  up  and 


at  it  again. 


It  is  certainly  quite  necessary  to  have  some 
such  example  before  our  eyes  in  struggling  to 


20  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

found  a  colony  here.  We  had  such  a  hard  time 
getting  our  church  and  schoolhouse  !  —  for  in 
these  primitive  regions  one  building  must  do  for 
both.  There  were  infinite  negotiations  and 
cases  to  go  through  before  a  site  could  be 
bought  with  a  clear  title ;  and  the  Freedman's 
Bureau  would  put  us  up  a  building  where  school 
could  be  taught  on  week-days,  and  worship  held 
on  Sundays :  but  at  last  it  was  done ;  and  a 
neat,  pleasant  little  place  it  was. 

We  had  a  little  Mason  and  Hamlin  mission 
ary  organ,  which  we  used  to  carry  over  on  Sun 
days,  and  a  cloth,  which  converted  the  master's 
desk  of  week-days  into  the  minister's  pulpit ; 
and  as  we  had  minister,  organist,  and  choir  all 
in  our  own  family,  we  were  sure  of  them  at  all 
events  ;  and  finally  a  good  congregation  was 
being  gathered.  On  week-days  a  school  for 
whites  and  blacks  was  taught,  until  the  misman 
agement  of  the  school-fund  had  used  up  the 


A   FLOWERY  JANUARY.  21 

sum  devoted  to  common  schools,  and  left  us 
without  a  teacher  for  a  year.  But  this  fall 
our  friend  Mr.  D.,  who  had  accepted  the  situa 
tion  of  county  overseer  of  schools,  had  just 
completed  arrangements  to  open  again  both 
the  white  and  the  black  schools,  when,  lo !  in 
one  night  our  poor  little  schoolhouse  was 
burned  to  the  ground,  with  our  Mason  and 
Hamlin  organ  in  it.  Latterly  it  had  been  found 
inconvenient  to  carry  it  backward  and  forward  ; 
and  so  it  had  been  left,  locked  in  a  closet,  and 
met  a  fiery  doom.  We  do  not  suppose  any 
malicious  incendiarism.  There  appears  evi 
dence  that  some  strolling  loafers  had  gotten  in 
to  spend  the  night,  and  probably  been  careless 
of  their  fire.  The  southern  pine  is  inflammable 
as  so  much  pitch,  and  will  almost  light  with  the 
scratch  of  a  match.  Well,  all  we  had  to  do  was 
to  imitate  the  pluck  of  the  orange-trees,  which 
we  immediately  did.  Our  neighborhood  had 


22  PALME TTO-LEA  VES. 

increased  by  three  or  four  families  ;  and  a  meet 
ing  was  immediately  held,  and  each  one  pledged 
himself  to  raise  a  certain  sum.  We  feel  the 
want  of  it  more  for  the  schoolhouse  than  even 
for  the  church.  We  go  on  with  our  Sunday 
services  at  each  other's  houses  ;  but  alas  for 
the  poor  children,  black  and  white,  growing  up 
so  fast,  who  have  been  kept  out  of  school  now  a 
year,  and  who  are  losing  these  best  months  for 
study !  To  see  people  who  are  willing  and 
anxious  to  be  taught  growing  up  in  ignorance 
is  the  sorest  sight  that  can  afflict  one  ;  and  we 
count  the  days  until  we  shall  have  our  church 
and  schoolhouse  again.  But,  meanwhile,  Man 
darin  presents  to  our  eyes  a  marvellously  im 
proved  aspect.  Two  or  three  large,  handsome 
houses  are  built  up  in  our  immediate  neighbor 
hood.  Your  old  collaborator  of  "  The  Christian 
Union"  has  a  most  fascinating  place  a  short  dis 
tance  from  us,  commanding  a  noble  sweep  of 


A    FLOWERY  JANUARY.  2$ 

view  up  and  down  the  river.  On  our  right  hand, 
two  gentlemen  from  Newark  have  taken  each  a 
lot ;  and  the  gables  of  the  house  of  one  of  them 
overlook  the  orange-trees  bravely  from  the  river. 

This  southern  pine,  unpainted,  makes  a  rich, 
soft  color  for  a  house.  Being  merely  oiled,  it 
turns  a  soft  golden  brown,  which  harmonizes 
charmingly  with  the  landscape. 

How  cold  is  it  here  ?  We  ask  ourselves,  a 
dozen  times  a  day,  "  What  season  is  it  ? "  We 
say,  "  This  spring,"  "  This  summer,"  and  speak 
of  our  Northern  life  as  "last  winter."  There 
are  cold  nights,  and,  occasionally,  white  frosts  : 
but  the  degree  of  cold  may  be  judged  from  the 
fact  that  the  Calla  Ethiopica  goes  on  budding 
and  blossoming  out  of  doors ;  that  La  Marque 
roses  have  not  lost  their  leaves,  and  have  long, 
young  shoots  on  them  ;  and  that  our  hand 
maiden,  a  pretty,  young  mulattress,  occasionally 
brings  to  us  a  whole  dish  of  roses  and  buds 


24  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

which  her  devoted  has  brought  her  from  some 
back  cottage  in  the  pine-woods.  We  have  also 
eaten  the  last  fresh  tomatoes  from  the  old  vines 
since  we  came ;  but  a  pretty  severe  frost  has 
nipped  them,  as  well  as  cut  off  a  promising  lot 
of  young  peas  just  coming  into  pod.  But  the 
pea-vines  will  still  grow  along,  and  we  shall 
have  others  soon. 

We  eat  radishes  out  of  the  ground,  and  let 
tuce,  now  and  then,  a  little  nipped  by  the  frost ; 
and  we  get  long  sprays  of  yellow  jessamine,  just 
beginning  to  blossom  in  the  woods. 

Yes,  it  is  spring ;  though  still  it  is  cold 
enough  to  make  our  good  bright  fire  a  rallying- 
point  to  the  family.  It  is  good  to  keep  fire  in  a 
country  where  it  is  considered  a  great  point  to 
get  rid  of  wood.  One  piles  and  heaps  up  with  a 
genial  cheer  when  one  thinks,  "  The  more  you 
burn,  the  better."  It  only  costs  what  you  pay 
for  cutting  and  hauling.  We  begin  to  find  our 


A   FLOWERY  JANUARY.  2$ 

usual  number  of  letters,  wanting  to  know  all 
this,  that,  and  the  other,  about  Florida.  All 
in  good  time,  friends.  Come  down  here  once, 
and  use  your  own  eyes,  and  you  will  know  more 
than  we  can  teach  you.  Till  when,  adieu. 


THE   WRONG  SIDE  OF  THE   TAPESTRY. 

?T  is  not  to  be  denied  that  full  half  of  the 
tourists  and  travellers  that  come  to 
I  Florida  return  intensely  disappointed, 
and  even  disgusted.  Why?  Evidently  because 
Florida,  like  a  piece  of  embroidery,  has  two  sides 
to  it,  —  one  side  all  tag-rag  and  thrums,  without 
order  or  position  ;  and  the  other  side  showing 
flowers  and  arabesques  and  brilliant  coloring. 
Both  these  sides  exist.  Both  are  undeniable,  un 
disputed  facts,  not  only  in  the  case  of  Florida,  but 
of  every  place  and  thing  under  the  sun.  There 
26 


THE    WRONG  SIDE.  2/ 

is  a  right  side  and  "a  wrong  side  to  every 
thing. 

Now,  tourists  and  travellers  generally  come 
with  their  heads  full  of  certain  romantic  ideas 
of  waving  palms,  orange-groves,  flowers,  and 
fruit,  all  burstfng  forth  in  tropical  abundance  ; 
and,  in  consequence,  they  go  through  Florida 
with  disappointment  at  every  step.  If  the  banks 
of  the  St.  John's  were  covered  with  orange- 
groves,  if  they  blossomed  every  month  in  the 
year,  if  they  were  always  loaded  with  fruit,  if 
pine-apples  and  bananas  grew  wild,  if  the  flowers 
hung  in  festoons  from  tree  to  tree,  if  the  ground 
were  enamelled  with  them  all  winter  long,  so  that 
you  saw  nothing  else,  then  they  would  begin  to 
be  satisfied. 

But,  in  point  of  fact,  they  find,  in  approaching 
Florida,  a  dead  sandy  level,  with  patches  be 
hind  them  of  rough  coarse  grass,  and  tall  pine- 
trees,  whose  tops  are  so  far  in  the  air  that  they 


2 8  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

seem  to  cast  no  shade,  and  a  little  scrubby  under 
brush.  The  few  houses  to  be  seen  along  the 
railroad  are  the  forlornest  of  huts.  The  cattle 
that  stray  about  are  thin  and  poverty-stricken, 
and  look  as  if  they  were  in  the  last  tottering 
stages  of  starvation. 

Then,  again,  winter,  in  a  semi-tropical  region, 
has  a  peculiar  desolate  untidiness,  from  the  fact 
that  there  is  none  of  that  clearing  of  the  trees 
and  shrubs  which  the  sharp  frosts  of  the 
northern  regions  occasion.  Here  the  leaves, 
many  of  them,  though  they  have  lost  their 
beauty,  spent  their  strength,  and  run  their 
course,  do  not  fall  thoroughly  and  cleanly,  but 
hang  on  in  ragged  patches,  waiting  to  be 
pushed  off  by  the  swelling  buds  of  next  year. 
In  New  England,  Nature  is  an  up-and-down, 
smart,  decisive  house-mother,  that  has  her  times 
and  seasons,  and  brings  up  her  ends  of  life  with 
a  positive  jerk.  She  will  have  no  shilly-shally. 


THE    WRONG  SIDE.  29 

When  her  time  comes,  she  clears  off  the  gardens 
and  forests  thoroughly  and  once  for  all,  and  they 
are  clean.  Then  she  freezes  the  ground  solid  as 
iron ;  and  then  she  covers  all  up  with  a  nice 
pure  winding-sheet  of  snow,  and  seals  matters 
up  as  a  good  housewife  does  her  jelly  tumblers 
under  white-paper  covers.  There  you  are  fast 
and  cleanly.  If  you  have  not  got  ready  for  it, 
so  much  the  worse  for  you !  If  your  tender 
roots  are  not  taken  up,  your  cellar  banked,  your 
doors  listed,  she  can't  help  it :  it's  your  own 
lookout,  not  hers. 

But  Nature  down  here  is  an  easy,  demoralized, 
indulgent  old  grandmother,  who  has  no  particu 
lar  time  for  any  thing,  and  does  every  thing 
when  she  happens  to  feel  like  it.  "  Is  it  winter, 
or  isn't  it?"  is  the  question  that  is  likely  often  to 
occur  in  the  settling  month  of  December,  when 

4 

everybody  up  North  has  put  away  summer 
clothes,  and  put  all  their  establishments  under 
winter-orders. 


30  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

Consequently,  on  arriving  in  mid-winter  time, 
the  first  thing  that  strikes  the  eye  is  the  ragged, 
untidy  look  of  the  foliage  and  shrubbery. 
About  one-third  of  the  trees  are  deciduous,  and 
stand  entirely  bare  of  leaves.  The  rest  are 
evergreen,  which  by  this  time,  having  come 
through  the  fierce  heats  of  summer,  have  ac 
quired  a  seared  and  dusky  hue,  different  from 
the  vivid  brightness  of  early  spring.  In  the 
garden  you  see  all  the  half-and-half  proceedings 
which  mark  the  indefinite  boundaries  of  the 
season.  The  rose-bushes  have  lost  about  half 
their  green  leaves.  Some  varieties,  however,  in 
this  climate,  seem  to  be  partly  evergreen.  The 
La  Marque  and  the  crimson  rose,  some 
times  called  Louis  Philippe,  seem  to  keep  their 
last  year's  foliage  till  spring  pushes  it  off  with 
new  leaves. 

Once  in  a  while,  however,  Nature,  like  a 
grandmother  in  a  fret,  comes  down  on  you  with 


THE    WRONG   SIDE.  31 

a  most  unexpected  snub.  You  have  a  cold  spell, 
—  an  actual  frost.  During  the  five  years  in 
which  we  have  made  this  our  winter  residence, 
there  have  twice  been  frosts  severe  enough  to 
spoil  the  orange-crop,  though  not  materially 
injuring  the  trees. 

This  present  winter  has  been  generally  a 
colder  one  than  usual ;  but  there  have  been  no 
hurtful  frosts.  But  one  great  cause  of  dis 
gust  and  provocation  of  tourists  in  Florida  is 
the  occurrence  of  these  "cold  snaps."  It  is 
really  amusing  to  see  how  people  accustomed  to 
the  tight  freezes,  the  drifting  snow  wreaths,  the 
stinging  rain,  hail,  and  snow,  of  the  Northern 
winter,  will  take  on  when  the  thermometer  goes 
down  to  30°  or  32°,  and  a  white  frost  is  seen  out 
of  doors.  They  are  perfectly  outraged.  "Suck 
weather  !  If  this  is  your  Florida  winter,  deliver 
me !  "  All  the  while  they  could  walk  out  any 
day  into  the  woods,  as  we  have  done,  and  gather 


32        .  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

eight  or  ten  varieties  of  flowers  blooming  in  the 
open  air,  and  eat  radishes  and  lettuce  and  peas 
grown  in  the  garden. 

Well,  it  is  to  be  confessed  that  the  cold  of 
warm  climates  always  has  a  peculiarly  aggravat 
ing  effect  on  the  mind.  A  warm  region  is  just 
like  some  people  who  get  such  a  character  for 
good  temper,  that  they  never  can  indulge  them 
selves  even  in  an  earnest  disclaimer  without 
everybody  crying  out  upon  them,  "  What  puts 
you  in  such  a  passion  ?  "  &c.  So  Nature,  if  she 
generally  sets  up  for  amiability  during  the  win 
ter  months,  cannot  be  allowed  a  little  tiff  now 
and  then,  a  white  frost,  a  cold  rain-storm,  with 
out  being  considered  a  monster. 

It  is  to  be  confessed  that  the  chill  of  warm 
climates,  when  they  are  chilly,  is  peculiar ;  and 
travellers  should  prepare  for  it,  not  only  in  mind, 
but  in  wardrobe,  by  carrying  a  plenty  of  warm 
clothing,  and,  above  all,  an  inestimable  India- 


THE    WRONG  SIDE.  33 

rubber  bottle,  which  they  can  fill  with  hot  water 
to  dissipate  the  chill  at  night.  An  experience 
of  four  winters  leads  us  to  keep  on  about  the 
usual  winter  clothing  until  March  or  April.  The 
first  day  after  our  arrival,  to  be  sure,  we  put 
away  all  our  furs  as  things  of  the  past ;  but  we 
keep  abundance  of  warm  shawls,  and,  above  all, 
wear  the  usual  flannels  till  late  in  the  spring. 

Invalids  seeking  a  home  here  should  be  par 
ticularly  careful  to  secure  rooms  in  which  there 
can  be  a  fire.  It  is  quite  as  necessary  as  at  the 
North  ;  and,  with  this  comfort,  the  cold  spells,  few 
in  number  as  they  are,  can  be  easily  passed  by. 

Our  great  feature  in  the  Northern  landscape, 
which  one  never  fails  to  miss  and  regret  here,  is 
the  grass.  The  nakedness  of  the  land  is  an 
expression  that  often  comes  over  one.  The 
peculiar  sandy  soil  is  very  difficult  to  arrange  in 
any  tidy  fashion.  You  cannot  make  beds  or 
alleys  of  it:  it  all  runs  together  like  a  place 

3 


34  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

where  hens  have  been  scratching  ;  and  conse 
quently  it  is  the  most  difficult  thing  in  the 
world  to  have  ornamental  grounds. 

At  the  North,  the  process  of  making  a  new 
place  appear  neat  and  inviting  is  very  rapid. 
One  season  of  grass-seed,  and  the  thing  is  done. 
Here,  however,  it  is  the  most  difficult  thing  in 
the  world  to  get  turf  of  any  sort  to  growing. 
The  Bermuda  grass,  and  a  certain  coarse,  broad- 
leafed  turf,  are  the  only  kind  that  can  stand  the 
summer  heat ;  and  these  never  have  the  beauty 
of  well-ordered  Northern' grass. 

X 

Now,  we  have  spent  anxious  hours  and  much 
labor  over  a  little  plot  in  our  back-yard,  which 
we  seeded  with  white  clover,  and  which,  for  a 
time,  was  green  and  lovely  to  behold  ;  but,  alas  ! 
the  Scripture  was  too  strikingly  verified  : 
"  When  the  sun  shineth  on  it  with  a  burning 
heat,  it  withereth  the  grass,  and  the  grace  of 
the  fashion  of  it  perisheth." 


THE   WRONG  SIDE.  35 

The  fact  is,  that  people  cannot  come  to  heartily 
like  Florida  till  they  accept  certain  deficiencies 
as  the  necessary  shadow  to  certain  excellences. 
If  you  want  to  live  in  an  orange-orchard,  you 
must  give  up  wanting  to  live  surrounded  by 
green  grass.  When  we  get  to  the  new  heaven 
and  the  new  earth,  then  we  shall  have  it  all  right. 
There  we  shall  have  a  climate  at  once  cool  and 
bracing,  yet  hot  enough  to  mature  oranges  and 
pine-apples.  Our  trees  of  life  shall  bear  twelve 
manner  of  fruit,  and  yield  a  new  one  every 
month.  Out  of  juicy  meadows  green  as  emerald, 
enamelled  with  every  kind  of  flower,  shall  grow 
our  golden  orange-trees,  blossoming  and  fruiting 
together  as  now  they  do.  There  shall  be  no 
mosquitoes,  or  gnats,  or  black-flies,  or  snakes  ; 
and,  best  of  all,  there  shall  be  no  fretful  people. 
Everybody  shall  be  like  a  well-tuned  instrument, 
all  sounding  in  accord,  and  never  a  semitone  out 
of  the  way. 


36  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

Meanwhile,  we  caution  everybody  coming  to 
Florida,  Don't  hope  for  too  much.  Because  you 
hear  that  roses  and  callas  blossom  in  the  open 
air  all  winter,  and  flowers  abound  in  the  woods, 
don't  expect  to  find  an  eternal  summer.  Prepare 
yourself  to  see  a  great  deal  that  looks  rough 
and  desolate  and  coarse  ;  prepare  yourself  for 
some  chilly  days  and  nights  ;  and,  whatever  else 
you  neglect  to  bring  with  you,  bring  the  resolu 
tion,  strong  and  solid,  always  to  make  the  best 
of  things. 

For  ourselves,  we  are  getting  reconciled  to  a 
sort  of  tumble-down,  wild,  picnicky  kind  of  life, 
—  this  general  happy-go-luckiness  which  Florida 
inculcates.  If  we  painted  her,  we  should  not 
represent  her  as  a  neat,  trim  damsel,  with 
starched  linen  cuffs  and  collar  :  she  would  be 
a  brunette,  dark  but  comely,  with  gorgeous 
tissues,  a  general  disarray  and  dazzle,  and  with 
a  sort  of  jolly  untidiness,  free,  easy,  and  joyous. 


THE    WRONG  SIDE.  37 

The  great  charm,  after  all,  of  this  life,  is  its 
outdoorness.  To  be  able  to  spend  your  winter 
out  of  doors,  even  though  some  days  be  cold  ; 
to  be  able  to  sit  with  windows  open  ;  to  hear 
birds  daily  ;  to  eat  fruit  from  trees,  and  pick 
flowers  from  hedges,  all  winter  long,  —  is  about 
the  whole  of  the  story.  This  you  can  do  ;  and 
this  is  why  Florida  is  life  and  health  to  the 
invalid. 

We  get  every  year  quantities  of  letters 
from  persons  of  small  fortunes,  asking  our 
advice  whether  they  had  better  move  to  Florida. 
For  our  part,  we  never  advise  people  to  move 
anywhere.  As  a  general  rule,  it  is  the  person 
who  feels  the  inconveniences  of  a  present  posi 
tion,  so  as  to  want  to  move,  who  will  feel  the  in 
convenience  of  a  future  one.  Florida  has  a 
lovely  winter  ;  but  it  has  also  three  formidable 
summer  months,  July,  August,  and  September, 
when  the  heat  is  excessive,  and  the  liabilities  of 


38  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

new  settlers  to  sickness  so  great,  that  we  should 
never  wish  to  take  the  responsibility  of  bringing 
anybody  here.  It  is  true  that  a  very  comforta 
ble  number  of  people  do  live  through  them  ; 
but  still  it  is  not  a  joke,  by  any  means,  to  move 
to  a  new  country.  The  first  colony  in  New 
England  lost  just  half  its  members  in  the  first 
six  months.  The  rich  bottom-lands  around 
Cincinnati  proved  graves  to  many  a  family 
before  they  were  brought  under  cultivation. 

But  Florida  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  people  who  can  afford  two  houses,  and  want  a 
refuge  from  the  drain  that  winter  makes  on  the 
health.  As  people  now  have  summer-houses  at 
Nahant  or  Rye,  so  they  might,  at  a  small  ex 
pense,  have  winter-houses  in  Florida,  and  come 
here  and  be  at  home.  That  is  the  great  charm, 
—  to  be  at  home.  A  house  here  can  be  simple 
and  inexpensive,  and  yet  very  charming. 
Already,  around  us  a  pretty  group  of  winter- 


THE   WRONG  SIDE.  39 

houses  is  rising :  and  we  look  forward  to  the 
time  when  there  shall  be  many  more  ;  when,  all 
along  the  shore  of  the  St.  John's,  cottages  and 
villas  shall  look  out  from  the  green  trees. 


A  LETTER  TO  THE  GIRLS. 

MANDARIN,  FLA.,  Feb.  13,  1872. 
;ES,  the  girls!  Let  me  see:  who  are 
they  ?  I  mean  you,  Nellie,  and  Mary, 
and  Emily,  and  Charlotte,  and  Gra 
de,  and  Susie,  and  Carry,  and  Kitty,  and  you 
of  every  pretty  name,  my  charming  little  Pussy 
Willow  friends  !  Dear  souls  all,  I  bless  your 
bright  eyes,  and  fancy  you  about  me  as  a  sort 
of  inspiration  to  my  writing.  I  could  wish  you 
were  every  one  here.  Don't  you  wish  that 
"The  Arabian  Nights"  were  true?  and  that 
40 


A   LETTER   TO   THE  GIRLS.  41 

there  were  really  little  square  bits  of  enchanted 
carpet,  on  which  one  has  only  to  sit  down 
and  pronounce  two  cabalistic  words,  and  away 
one  goes  through  the  air,  sailing  off  on  visits  ? 
Then,  girls,  wouldn't  we  have  a  nice  wide  bit 
of  carpet  ?  and  wouldn't  we  have  the  whole 
bright  flock  of  you  come  fluttering  down 
together  to  play  croquet  with  us  under  the 
orange-trees  this  afternoon  ?  And,  while  you 
were  waiting  for  your  turns  to  come,  you  should 
reach  up  and  pull  down  a  bough,  and  help  your 
selves  to  oranges  ;  or  you  should  join  a  party 
now  going  out  into  the  pine-woods  to  gather 
yellow  jessamine.  To-day  is  mail-day ;  and,  as 
the  yellow  jessamine  is  in  all  its  glory,  the  girls 
here  are  sending  little  boxes  of  it  North  to  their 
various  friends  through  the  mail.  They  have 
just  been  bringing  in  long  wreaths  and  clusters 
of  it  for  me  to  look  at,  and  are  consulting  how 
to  pack  it.  Then  this  afternoon,  when  we  have 


42  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

done  croquet,  it  is  proposed  that  we  form  a  party 
to  visit  Aunt  Katy,  who  lives  about  two  miles 
away  in  the  pine-woods,  "over  on  Julington  "  as 
the  people  here  say.  "  On  Julington  "  means  on 
a  branch  of  the  St.  John's  named  Julington 
Creek,  although  it  is  as  wide  as  the  Connecticut 
River  at  Hartford.  We  put  the  oldest  mule  to 
an  old  wagon,  and  walk  and  ride  alternately ; 
some  of  us  riding  one  way,  and  some  the  other. 
The  old  mule,  named  Fly,  is  a  worn-out, 
ancient  patriarch,  who,  having  worked  all  his 
days  without  seeing  any  particular  use  in  it,  is 
now  getting  rather  misanthropic  in  his  old  age, 
and  obstinately  determined  not  to  put  one  foot 
before  the  other  one  bit  faster  than  he  is  actually 
forced  to  do.  Only  the  most  vigorous  urging 
can  get  him  to  step  out  of  a  walk,  although  we 
are  told  that  the  rogue  has  a  very  fair  trot  at  his 
command.  If  any  of  the  darky  tribe  are  be 
hind  him,  he  never  thinks  of  doing  any  thing 


A   LETTER   TO    THE  GIRLS.  43 

but  pricking  up  his  ears,  and  trotting  at  a  decent 
pace  ;  but,  when  only  girls  and  women  are  to  the 
fore,  down  flop  his  ears,  down  goes  his  head, 
and  he  creeps  obstinately  along  in  the  afore 
mentioned  contemplative  manner,  looking,  for  all 
the  world,  like  a  very  rough,  dilapidated  old  hair- 
trunk  in  a  state  of  locomotion. 

Well,  I  don't  blame  him,  poor  brute !  Life,  I 
suppose,  is  as  much  a  mystery  to  him  as  to  the 
philosophers ;  and  he  has  never  been  able  to 
settle  what  it  is  all  about,  this  fuss  of  being 
harnessed  periodically  to  impertinent  carts,  and 
driven  here  and  there,  for  no  valuable  purpose 
that  he  can  see. 

Such  as  he  is,  Fly  is  the  absolute  property  of 
the  girls  and  women,  being  past  farm-work  ;  and 
though  he  never  willingly  does  any  thing  but 
walk,  yet  his  walk  is  considerably  faster  than 
that  of  even  the  most  agile  of  us,  and  he  is  by 
many  degrees  better  than  nothing.  He  is  ad- 


44  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

mitted  on  all  hands  to  be  a  safe  beast,  and  will 
certainly  never  run  away  with  any  of  us. 

As  to  the  choice  of  excursions,  there  are 
several,  —  one  to  our  neighbor  Bowens  to  see 
sugar-making,  where  we  can  watch  the  whole 
process,  from  the  grinding  of  the  cane  through 
the  various  vats  and  boilers,  till  at  last  we  see 
the  perfected  sugar  in  fine,  bright,  straw-colored 
crystals  in  the  sugar-house.  We  are  hospitably 
treated  to  saucers  of  lovely,  amber-colored  sirup 
just  on  the  point  of  crystallization,  —  liquid 
sugar-candy,  —  which,  of  course,  we  do  not  turn 
away  from.  Then,  again,  we  can  go  down  the 
banks  of  the  river  to  where  our  neighbor  Dun 
can  has  cleared  up  a  little  spot  in  what  used 
to  be  virgin  forest,  and  where  now  a  cosey  little 
cottage  is  beginning  to  peep  through  its  many 
windows  upon  the  river-view.  Here  a  bright 
little  baby — a  real  little  Florida  flower  —  has 
lately  opened  a  pair  of  lovely  eyes,  and  is  growing 


A   LETTER   TO   THE  GIRLS.  45 

daily  in  grace  and  favor.  In  front  of  this  cottage, 
spared  from  the  forest,  are  three  great  stately 
magnolias,  such  trees  as  you  never  saw.  Their 
leaves  resemble  those  of  the  India-rubber  tree,  — 
large,  and  of  a  glossy,  varnished  green.  They 
are  evergreen,  and  in  May  are  covered  with 
great  white  blossoms,  something  like  pond-lilies, 
and  with  very  much  the  same  odor.  The  trees 
at  the  North  called  magnolias  give  no  idea  what 
ever  of  what  these  are.  They  are  giants  among 
flowers ;  seem  worthy  to  be  trees  of  heaven. 

Then  there  are  all  sorts  of  things  to  be  got 
out  of  the  woods.  There  are  palmetto-leaves  to 
be  pressed  and  dried,  and  made  into  fens  ;  there 
is  the  long  wire-grass,  which  can  be  sewed  into 
mats,  baskets,  and  various  little  fancy  articles, 
by  busy  fingers.  Every  day  brings  something 
to  explore  the  woods  for :  not  a  day  in  winter 
passes  that  you  cannot  bring  home  a  reasonable 
little  nosegay  of  flowers.  Many  of  the  flowers 


46  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

here  do  not  have  their  seasons,  but  seem  to  bloom 
the  year  round  :  so  that,  all  the  time,  you  are  sure 
of  finding  something.  The  woods  now  are  full 
of  bright,  delicate  ferns  that  no  frosts  have 
touched,  and  that  spring  and  grow  perennially. 
The  book  of  Nature  here  is  never  shut  and 
clasped  with  ice  and  snow  as  at  the  North  ;  and, 
of  course,  we  spend  about  half  our  time  in  the 
open  air. 

The  last  sensation  of  our  circle  is  our  red- 
bird.  We  do  not  approve  of  putting  free  birds 
in  cages ;  but  Aunt  Katy  brought  to  one  of  our 
party  such  a  beautiful  fellow,  so  brilliant  a  red, 
with  such  a  smart,  black  crest  on  his  head,  and 
such  a  long,  flashing  red  tail,  that  we  couldn't 
resist  the  desire  to  keep  him  a  little  while,  just 
to  look  at  him.  Aunt  Katy  insisted  that  he 
wouldn't  take  it  to  heart ;  that  he  would  be  tame 
in  a  few  days,  and  eat  out  of  our  hands  :  in 
short,  she  insisted  that  he  would  consider  him 
self  a  fortunate  bird  to  belong  to  us. 


A   LETTER   TO   THE  GIRLS.  47 

Aunt  Katy,  you  must  know,  is  a  nice  old  lady. 
We  use  that  term  with  a  meaning  ;  for,  though 
"black  as  the  tents  of  Kedar,"  she  is  a  per 
fect  lady  in  her  manners:  she  was  born  and 
brought  up,  and  has  always  lived,  in  this 
neighborhood,  and  knows  every  bird  in  the 
forest  as  familiarly  as  if  they  were  all  her  own 
chickens ;  and  she  has  great  skill  in  getting  them 
to  come  to  her  to  be  caught. 

Well,  our  red-bird  was  named  Phoebus,  of  a 
kind  that.  Audubon  calls  a  cardinal-grossbeak ; 
and  a  fine,  large,  roomy  cage  was  got  down  for 
him,  which  was  of  old  tenanted  by  a  very  merry 
and  rackety  cat-bird ;  and  then  the  question 
arose,  "  What  shall  we  do  with  him  ?  "  For  you 
see,  girls,  having  a  soft  place  in  our  heart  for  all 
pets,  instead  of  drowning  some  of  our  kittens  in 
the  fall,  as  reasonable  people  should,  we  were 
seduced  by  their  gambols  and  their  prettiness  to 
let  them  all  grow  up  together;  and  the  result  is, 


48  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

that  we  have  now  in  our  domestic  retinue  four 
adult  cats  of  most  formidable  proportions. 
"  These  be  the  generations  "  of  our  cats  :  first, 
Liz,  the  mother ;  second,  Peter,  her  oldest  son  ; 
third,  Anna  and  Lucinda,  her  daughters.  Peter 
is  a  particularly  martial,  combative,  obnoxious 
beast,  very  fluffy  and  fussy,  with  great,  full- 
moon,  yellow  eyes,  and  a  most  resounding, 
sonorous  voice.  There  is  an  immense  deal  of 
cat  in  Peter.  He  is  concentrated  cathood,  a 
nugget  of  pure  cat ;  and  in  fact  we  are  all  a 
little  in  awe  of  him.  He  rules  his  mother  and 
sisters  as  if  he  had  never  heard  of  Susan 
Anthony  and  Mrs.  Stanton.  Liz,  Anna,  and 
Lucinda  are  also  wonderfully-well-developed  cats, 
with  capital  stomachs.  Now  comes  the  prob 
lem  :  the  moment  the  red-bird  was  let  into  his 
cage,  there  was  an  instant  whisk  of  tails,  and  a 
glare  of  great  yellow  eyes,  and  a  sharpening  of 
eye-teeth,  that  marked  a  situation.  The  Scrip- 


A   LETTER   TO   THE   GIRLS.  49 

ture  tells  us  a  time  is  coming  when  the  lion  shall 
lie  down  with  the  lamb  ;  but  that  time  hasn't 
come  in  Florida.  Peter  is  a  regular  heathen, 
and  hasn't  the  remotest  idea  of  the  millennium. 
He  has  much  of  the  lion  in  him  ;  but  he  never 
could  lie  down  peaceably  with  the  lamb,  unless 
indeed  the  lamb  were  inside  of  him,  when  he 
would  sleep  upon  him  without  a  twinge  of  con 
science.  Unmistakably  we  could  see  in  his  eyes 
that  he  considered  Phoebus  as  caught  for  his 
breakfast ;  and  he  sat  licking  his  chops  inquir 
ingly,  as  who  should  ask,  "  When  will  the  cloth 
be  laid,  and  things  be  ready  ? " 

Now,  the  party  to  whom  the  red-bird  was 
given  is  also  the  patron-saint,  the  "  guide,  phi 
losopher,  and  friend,"  of  the  cats.  It  is  she  who 
examines  the  plates  after  each  meal,  and  treas 
ures  fragments,  which  she  cuts  up  and  prepares 
for  their  repast  with  commendable  regularity.  It 
is  she  who  presides  and  keeps  order  at  cat- 

4 


50  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

meals ;  and  forasmuch  as  Peter,  on  account  of 
his  masculine  strength  and  rapacity,  is  apt  to  get 
the  better  of  his  mother  and  sisters,  she  picks 
him  up,  and  bears  him  growling  from  the  board, 
when  he  has  demolished  his  own  portion,  and  is 
proceeding  to  eat  up  theirs. 

Imagine,  now,  the  cares  of  a  woman  with  four 
cats  and  a  bird  on  her  mind !  Phoebus  had  to 
be  carefully  pinned  up  in  a  blanket  the  first 
night ;  then  the  cage  was  swung  by  strong  cords 
from  the  roof  of  the  veranda.  The  next  morn 
ing,  Peter  was  found  perched  on  top  of  it,  glaring 
fiendishly.  The  cage  was  moved  along ;  and 
Peter  scaled  a  pillar,  and  stationed  himself  at  the 
side.  To  be  sure,  he  couldn't  get  the  bird,  as 
the  slats  were  too  close  for  his  paw  to  go 
through ;  but  poor  Phoebus  seemed  wild  with 
terror.  Was  it  for  this  he  left  his  native  wilds,  — 
to  be  exposed  in  a  prison  to  glaring,  wild-eyed 
hyenas  and  tigers  ? 


A   LETTER   TO   THE   GIRLS.  51 

The  cats  were  admonished,  chastised, 
"  scat  "-ed,  through  all  the  moods  and  tenses  ; 
though  their  patroness  still  serves  out  their 
commons  regularly,  determined  that  they  shall 
not  have  the  apology  of  empty  stomachs. 
Phcebus  is  evidently  a  philosopher,  —  a  bird  of 
strong  sense.  Having  found,  after  two  or  three 
days'  trial,  that  the  cats  can't  get  him  ;  having 
clusters  of  the  most  delicious  rice  dangling  from 
the  roof  of  his  cage,  and  fine  crisp  lettuce  ver 
dantly  inviting  through  the  bars,  —  he  seems  to 
have  accepted  the  situation  ;  and,  when  nobody 
is  in  the  veranda,  he  uplifts  his  voice  in  song. 
"  What  cheer !  what  cheer !  "  he  says,  together 
with  many  little  twitters  and  gurgles  for  which  we 
have  no  musical  notes.  Aunt  Katy  promises  to 
bring  him  a  little  wife  before  long ;  and,  if  that 
be  given  him,  what  shall  hinder  him  from  being 
happy  ?  As  April  comes  in,  they  shall  build 


52  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

their  nest  in  the  cage,  and   give  us  a  flock  of 
little  red-birds. 

Well,  girls,  we  are  making  a  long  letter ;  and 
this  must  do  for  this  week. 


A  WATER-COACH,  AND  A  RIDE  IN  IT. 

MONDAY,  Feb.  26,  1872. 

'EAR  girls,  wouldn't  you  like  to 
get  into  that  little  white  yacht  that 
lies  dancing  and  courtesying  on  the 
blue  waters  of  the  St.  John's  this  pleasant  Mon 
day  morning  ? 

It  is  a  day  of  days.  Spring  has  come  down 
with  all  her  smiles  and  roses  in  one  hour.  The 
great  blue  sheet  of  water  shimmers  and  glitters 
like  so  much  liquid  lapis  lazuli ;  and  now  the 

S3 


54  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

word  comes  in  from  our  neighbor,  the  owner  of 
the  pleasure-yacht,  "Wouldn't  you  like  to  go 
sailing  ? " 

Of  course  we  should !  That  is  exactly  what 
we  do  want.  And  forthwith  there  is  a  running 
and  a  mustering  of  the  clans,  and  a  flapping  of 
broad  palmetto-hats  ;  and  parties  from  all  the 
three  houses  file  down,  and  present  themselves 
as  candidates  for  pleasure.  A  great  basket  of 
oranges  is  hoisted  in,  and  the  white  sails  spread  ; 
and  with  "  Youth  at  the  prow,  and  Pleasure  at 
the  helm,"  away  we  go,  the  breezes  blowing 
manfully  at  our  sails.  The  river  is  about  five 
miles  from  shore  to  shore,  and  we  have  known 
it  of  old  for  a  most  enticing  and  tricksy  cus 
tomer.  It  gently  wooes  and  seduces  you ;  it 
starts  you  out  with  all  manner  of  zephyrs,  until 
you  get  into  the  very  middle,  two  miles  from 
land  on  either  side,  when  down  goes  your  limp 
sail,  and  the  breeze  is  off  on  some  other  errand, 


A    WATER-COACH.  55 

and  you  are  left  to  your  reflections.  Not  imme 
diately  did  this  happen  to  us,  however;  though, 
when  we  came  to  the  middle  of  the  river,  our 
course  was  slow  enough  to  give  plenty  of  oppor 
tunity  to  discuss  the  basket  of  oranges.  We 
settle  it  among  us  that  we  will  cross  to  Doctor's 
Lake.  This  name  is  given  to  a  wide  bayou 
which  the  river  makes,  running  up  into  the 
forest  for  a  track  of  about  nine  miles.  It  is  a 
famous  fishing  and  hunting  region,  and  a  favor 
ite  and  chosen  abode  of  the  alligators.  At  the 
farther  end  of  it  are  said  to  be  swamps  where 
they  have  their  lairs,  and  lay  their  eggs,  and 
hatch  out  charming  young  alligators.  Just 
at  the  opening  where  the  river  puts  into  this 
lake  are  the  nets  of  the  shad-fishers,  who  supply 
the  Jacksonville  market  with  that  delicious  arti 
cle.  We  are  minded  to  go  over  and  fill  our  pro 
vision-baskets  before  they  go. 

Now  we  near  the  opposite  shore  of  the  river. 


56  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

We  see  the  great  tuft  of  Spanish  oaks  which 
marks  the  house  of  the  old  Macintosh  planta 
tion,  once  the  palmiest  in  Florida.  This  de 
mesne  had  nine  thousand  acres  of  land,  includ 
ing  in  it  the  Doctor's  Lake  and  the  islands 
therein,  with  all  the  store  of  swamps  and  forests 
and  alligators'  nests,  wild-orange  groves,  and  pal 
metto-jungles.  It  was  a  sort  of  pride  of  terri 
tory  that  animated  these  old  aboriginal  planters  ; 
for,  of  the  whole  nine  thousand  acres  which 
formed  the  estate,  only  about  five  hundred  ever 
were  cleared,  and  subject  to  cultivation.  One  of 
these  days  we  are  projecting  to  spend  a  day  pic 
nicking  on  this  old  plantation,  now  deserted  and 
decaying ;  and  then  we  can  tell  you  many  curious 
things  in  its  history.  But  now  we  are  coming 
close  alongside  the  shad-nets.  We  find  no  fish 
ermen  to  traffic  with.  Discerning  a  rude  hut  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  bayou,  we  make  for  that, 
expecting  there  to  find  them.  We  hail  a  boy 
who  lies  idly  in  a  boat  by  the  shore. 


A    WATER-COACH.  57 

"  Halloo,  my  fine  fellow !  Can  you  tell  us 
where  the  people  are  that  tend  that  net  ? " 

"  Don't  know,"  is  the  reply  that  comes  over 
the  water. 

"  Can  you  sell  us  any  fish  ? " 

"  Got  a  couple  o'  trout." 

"  Bring  'em  along."  And  away  we  go,  rip 
pling  before  the  breeze  ;  while  the  boy,  with  the 
graceful  deliberation  which  marks  the  move 
ments  of  the  native  population,  prepares  to  come 
after  us. 

"  I  don't  believe  he  understood,"  said  one. 

"  Oh,  yes  !  He's  only  taking  his  time,  as  they 
all  do  down  here.  He'll  be  along  in  the  course 
of  the  forenoon." 

At  last  he  comes  alongside,  and  shows  a 
couple  of  great  black-looking,  goggle-eyed  fish, 
which  look  more  like  incipient  cod  or  haddock 
than  trout.  Such  as  they  are,  however,  we  con 
clude  a  bargain  for  them  ;  and  away  goes  our  boy 


58  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

with  fifty  cents  in  his  pocket.  What  he  can 
want  of  fifty  cents  in  a  hut  on  the  other  side  of 
Doctor's  Lake  is  a  question.  Can  he  trade  with 
alligators  ?  But  he  has  a  boat ;  and  we  foresee 
that  that  boat  will  make  a  voyage  across  to  the 
grocery  on  the  opposite  point,  where  whiskey, 
pork,  and  flour  are  sold.  Meanwhile  we  looked 
at  the  little  rude  hut  again.  It  was  Monday 
morning ;  and  a  string  of  clothes  was  fluttering 
on  a  line,  and  a  good  many  little  garments 
among  them.  There  is  a  mother,  then,  and  a 
family  of  children  growing  up.  We  noticed  the 
sheen  of  three  or  four  orange-trees,  probably 
wild  ones,  about  the  house.  Now  we  go  rippling 
up  the  bayou,  close  along  by  the  shore.  The 
land  is  swampy,  and  the  forests  glister  with  the 
shining,  varnished  leaves  of  the  magnolias  ;  and 
we  saw  far  within  the  waving  green  fans  of  the 
swamp-palmetto.  The  gum-trees  and  water- 
oaks  were  just  bursting  into  leaf  with  that  daz- 


A    WATER-COACH.  59 

zling  green  of  early  spring  which  is  almost 
metallic  in  brilliancy.  The  maples  were  throw 
ing  out  blood-red  keys,  —  larger  and  higher- 
colored  than  the  maples  of  the  North.  There  is 
a  whir  of  wings  ;  and  along  the  opposite  shore 
of  the  bayou  the  wild-ducks  file  in  long  platoons. 
Now  and  then  a  water-turkey,  with  his  long 
neck  and  legs,  varies  the  scene.  There  swoops 
down  a  fish-hawk  ;  and  we  see  him  bearing  aloft 
a  silvery  fish,  wriggling  and  twisting  in  his 
grasp.  We  were  struck  with  the  similarity  of 
our  tastes.  He  was  fond  of  shad :  so  were  we. 
He  had  a  wriggling  fish  in  his  claws  ;  and  we 
had  a  couple  flapping  and  bouncing  in  the 
basket,  over  which  we  were  gloating.  There 
was  but  one  point  of  difference.  He,  undoubt 
edly,  would  eat  his  fish  raw ;  whereas  we  were 
planning  to  have  ours  cut  in  slices,  and  fried 
with  salt  pork.  Otherwise  the  fish-hawk  and  we 
were  out  on  the  same  errand,  with  the  same 
results. 


60  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

Yet  at  first  view,  I  must  confess,  when  we 
saw  him  rise  with  a  wriggling  fish  in  his  claws, 
he  struck  us  as  a  monster.  It  seemed  a  savage 
proceeding,  and  we  pitied  the  struggling  fish, 
while  ours  were  yet  flapping  in  the  basket. 
This  eating-business  is  far  from  pleasant  to  con 
template.  Every  thing  seems  to  be  in  for  it. 
It  is  "catch  who  catch  can"  through  all  the 
animal  kingdom  till  it  comes  up  to  man  ;  and 
he  eats  the  whole,  choosing  or  refusing  as  suits 
his  taste.  One  wonders  why  there  was  not  a 
superior  order  of  beings  made  to  eat  us.  Mos 
quitoes  and  black-flies  get  now  and  then  a  nip, 
to  be  sure ;  but  there  is  nobody  provided  to 
make  a  square  meal  of  us,  as  we  do  on  a  wild 
turkey,  for  example.  But  speaking  of  eating, 
and  discussing  fried  fish  and  salt  pork,  aroused 
harrowing  reflections  in  our  company.  We 
found  ourselves  at  one  o'clock  in  the  middle  of 
Doctor's  Lake,  with  the  dinner-shore  at  least  five 


A    WATER-COACH.  6 1 

miles  away  ;  and  it  was  agreed,  nem.  con.,  that  it 
was  time  to  put  about.  The  fish-hawk  had  sug 
gested  dinner-time. 

And  now  came  the  beauty  of  the  proceeding. 
We  drove  merrily  out  of  Doctor's  Lake  into  the 
beautiful  blue  middle  of  the  St.  John's :  and 
there  the  zephyrs  gayly  whispered,  "  Good-by, 
friends  ;  and,  when  you  get  ashore,  let  us  know." 
The  river  was  like  a  molten  looking-glass,  the 
sun  staring  steadfastly  down.  There  is  nothing 
for  it  but  to  get  out  the  oars,  and  pull  strong  and 
steady ;  and  so  we  do.  It  is  the  old  trick  of  this 
St  John's,  whereby  muscular  development  is 
promoted.  First  two  gentlemen  row  ;  then  a 
lady  takes  one  oar,  and  we  work  our  way  along 
to  the  shore  ;  but  it  is  full  four  o'clock  before  we 
get  there. 

As  we  approach,  we  pass  brisk  little  nine- 
year-old  Daisy,  who  is  out  alone  in  her  boat, 
with  her  doll-carriage  and  doll.  She  has  been 


62  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

.  ^   .*igr  ?#•* 

rowing  down  to  make  a  morning  call  on  Bes 
sie,  and  is  now  returning.  Off  on  the  end  of 
the  wharf  we  see  the  whole  family  watching 
for  our  return.  The  Professor's  white  beard  and 
red  fez  cap  make  a  striking  point  in  the  tableau. 
Our  little  friend  Bob,  and  even  baby  and  mamma, 
are  on  the  point  of  observation.  It  is  past  four 
o'clock,  dinner  long  over;  and  they  have  all  been 
wondering  what  has  got  us.  We  walk  straight 
up  to  the  house,  with  but  one  idea,  —  dinner. 
We  cease  to  blame  the  fish-hawk,  being  in  a  con 
dition  fully  to  enter  into  his  feelings  :  a  little 
more,  and  we  could  eat  fish  as  he  does, — without 
roasting.  Doubtless  he  and  Mrs.  Fish-hawk,  and 
the  little  Fish-hawks,  may  have  been  discussing 
us  over  their  savory  meal ;  but  we  find  little  to 
say  till  dinner  is  despatched. 

The  last  hour  on  board  the  boat  had  been 
devoted  to  a  course  of  reflections  on  our  folly  in 
starting  out  without  luncheon,  and  to  planning  a 


A    WATER-COACH.  63 

more  advised  excursion  up  Julington  Creek  with 
all  the  proper  paraphernalia ;  viz.,  a  kerosene- 
stove  for  making  coffee,  an  embankment  of  ham- 
sandwiches,  diversified  with  cakes,  crackers,  and 
cheese.  This,  it  is  understood,  is  to  come  off 
to-mofrow  morning. 

Tuesday  Morning,  Feb.  27.  —  Such  was  to 
have  been  my  programme  ;  but,  alas  !  this  morn 
ing,  though  the  day  rose  bright  and  clear,  there 
was  not  a  breath  of  wind.  The  river  has  looked 
all  day  like  a  sheet  of  glass.  There  is  a  drowsy, 
hazy  calm  over  every  thing.  All  our  windows 
and  doors  are  open  ;  and  every  sound  seems  to  be 
ringingly  distinct.  The  chatter  and  laughing  of 
the  children,  (God  bless  'em  !)  who  are  all  day 
long  frolicking  on  the  end  of  the  wharf,  or  rowing 
about  in  the  boats ;  the  leisurely  chip,  chip,  of 
the  men  who  are  busy  in  mending  the  steamboat 
wharf;  the  hammer  of  the  carpenters  on  the  yet 
unfinished  part  of  our  neighbor's  house-;  the 


64  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

.  •,  «$r,  ;4«* 

scream  of   the  jays   in   the   orange-trees,  —  all 
blend  in  a  sort  of  dreamy  indistinctness. 

To-day  is  one  of  the  two  red-letter  days  of 
our  week, —  the  day  of  the  arrival  of  the  mail. 
You  who  have  a  driblet  two  or  three  times  a  day 
from  the  mail  cannot  conceive  the  interest  that 
gathers  around  these  two  weekly  arrivals.  The 
whole  forenoon  is  taken  up  with  it.  We  sit  on 
the  veranda,  and  watch  the  mail-boat  far  down 
the  river,  —  a  mere  white  speck  as  she  passes 
through  the  wooded  opening  above  Jacksonville. 
She  grows  larger  and  larger  as  she  comes  sail 
ing  up  like  a  great  white  stately  swan,  first  on 
the  farther  side  of  the  river  till  she  comes  to 
Reed's  Landing  ;  and  then,  turning  her  white 
breast  full  toward  Mandarin  Wharf,  she  comes 
ploughing  across,  freighted  with  all  our  hopes 
and  fears.  Then  follows  the  rush  for  our  mail ; 
then  the  distribution  :  after  which  all  depart  to 
their  several  apartments  with  their  letters. 


A    WATER-COACH.  65 

Then  follow  readings  to  each  other,  general 
tidings  and  greetings  ;  and  when  the  letters  are 
all  read  twice  over,  and  thoroughly  discussed, 
come  the  papers.  Tuesday  is  "  The  Christian 
Union  "  day,  as  well  as  the  day  for  about  a  dozen 
other  papers  ;  and  the  Professor  is  seen  hence 
forward  with  bursting  pockets,  like  a  very  large 
carnation  bursting  its  calyx.  He  is  a  walking 
mass  of  papers. 

The  afternoon  has  been  devoted  to  reflection, 
gossiping,  and  various  expeditions.      B.  and  G. 

have   gone   boating  with  Mr. ;    and  come 

home,  on  the  edge  of  the  evening,  with  the  ani 
mating  news  that  they  have  seen  the  two  first 
alligators  of  the  season.  That  shows  that  warm 
weather  is  to  be  expected  ;  for  your  alligator  is  a 
delicate  beast,  and  never  comes  out  when  there 
is  the  least  danger  of  catching  cold.  Another 
party  have  been  driving  "  Fly "  through  the 
woods  to  Julington  Creek,  and  come  back  re- 
5 


66  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 


porting  that  they  have  seen  an  owl.  The  Pro 
fessor  gives  report  of  having  seen  two  veritable 
wild-turkeys  and  a  blue  crane,  —  news  which 
touches  us  all  tenderly  ;  for  we  have  as  yet  had 
not  a  turkey  to  our  festive  board.  We  ourselves 
have  been  having  a  quiet  game  of  croquet  out 
under  the  orange-trees,  playing  till  we  could 
see  the  wickets  no  longer.  So  goes  our  day,  — 
breezy,  open-aired,  and  full  of  variety.  Your 
world,  Mr.  Union,  is  seen  in  perspective,  far  off 
and  hazy,  like  the  opposite  shores  of  the  river. 
Nevertheless,  this  is  the  place  to  read  papers 
and  books  ;  for  every  thing  that  sweeps  into  this 
quiet  bay  is  long  and  quietly  considered.  We 
shall  have  something  anon  to  say  as  to  how  you 
all  look  in  the  blue  perspective  of  distance. 

Meanwhile,  we  must  tell  the  girls  that  Phoe 
bus  has  wholly  accommodated  himself  to  his 
situation,  and  wakes  us,  mornings,  with  his  sing 
ing.  "  What  cheer  !  what  cheer  !  "  he  says. 


A    WATER-COACH.  67 

Whether  he  alludes  to  the  four  cats,  or  to  his 
large  cage,  or  to  his  own  internal  determination, 
like  Mark  Tapley,  to  be  jolly,  isn't  evident. 

Last  week,  Aunt  Katy  brought  a  mate  for 
him,  which  was  christened  Luna.  She  was  a 
pretty  creature,  smaller,  less  brilliant,  but 
gracefully  shaped,  and  with  a  nice  crest  on  her 
head.  We  regret  to  say  that  she  lived  only  a 
few  hours,  being  found  dead  in  the  cage  in  the 
morning.  A  day  or  two  since,  great  sympathy 
was  expressed  for  Phcebus,  in  view  of  the  matri 
monial  happiness  of  a  pair  of  red-birds  who 
came  to  survey  our  yellow  jessamine  with  a  view 
to  setting  up  housekeeping  there.  Would  not 
the  view  of  freedom  and  wedded  joys  depress  his 
spirits  ?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  He  is  evidently  cut 
out  for  a  jolly  bachelor  ;  and,  as  long  as  he  has 
fine  chambers  and  a  plenty  of  rough  rice,  what 
cares  he  for  family  life?  The  heartless  fellow 
piped  up,  "  What  cheer !  what  cheer !  "  the  very 


68  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

,  A  <fpf.i& 

day  that  he  got  his  cage  to  himself.  Is  this  pecu 
liar?  A  lady  at  our  table  has  stated  it  as  a 
universal  fact,  that,  as  soon  as  a  man's  wife  dies, 
he  immediately  gets  a  new  suit  of  clothes. 
Well,  why  shouldn't  he  ?  Nothing  conduces 
more  to  cheerfulness.  On  the  whole,  we  think 
Phoebus  is  a  pattern  bird. 

P.  S.  —  Ask  the  author  of  "  My  Summer  in  a 
Garden  "  if  he  can't  condense  his  account  of 
"  Calvin's  "  virtues  into  a  tract,  to  be  distributed 
among  our  cats.  Peter  is  such  a  hardened  sin 
ner,  a  little  Calvinism  might  operate  well  on 
him. 


PICNICKING   UP  JULINGTON. 

MANDARIN,  FLA.,  Feb.  29,  1872. 
HIS  twenty-ninth  day  of  February  is 
a  day  made  on  purpose  for  a  fishing- 
party.  A  day  that  comes  only  once 
in  four  years  certainly  ought  to  be  good  for 
something  ;  and  this  is  as  good  a  day  for  pic 
nicking  up  Julington  as  if  it  had  been  bespoken 
four  years  ahead.  A  bright  sun,  a  blue  sky,  a 
fresh,  strong  breeze  upon  the  water,  —  these  are 
Nature's  contributions.  Art  contributes  two 

69 


70  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

.  ^  jOf.y* 

trim  little  white  yachts,  "  The  Nelly  "  and  "  The 
Bessie,"  and  three  row-boats.  Down  we  all 
troop  to  the  landing  with  our  luncheon-baskets, 
kerosene-stove,  tea-kettle,  and  coffee-pot,  baskets 
of  oranges,  and  fishing-reels. 

Out  flutter  the  sails,  and  away  we  go.  No  dan 
ger  to-day  of  being  left  in  the  lurch  in  the  middle 
of  the  river.  There  is  all  the  breeze  one  wants, 
and  a  little  more  than  the  timorous  love  ;  and 
we  go  rippling  and  racing  through  the  water  in 
merry  style.  The  spray  flies,  so  that  we  need 
our  water-proofs  and  blankets ;  but  the  more  the 
merrier.  We  sweep  gallantly  first  by  the  cot 
tage  of  your  whilom  editor  in  "  The  Union,"  and 

get  a  friendly  salute ;  and  then  flutter  by  D 's 

cottage,  and  wave  our  handkerchiefs,  and  get 
salutes  in  return.  Now  we  round  the  point,  and 
Julington  opens  her  wide  blue  arms  to  receive  us. 

We  pass  by  Neighbor  H 's,  and  again  wave 

our  handkerchiefs,  and  get   answering   salutes. 


PICNICKING   UP  JU LING  TON.  7 1 

We  run  up  to  the  wharf  to  secure  another  boat 

and  oarsman  in  the  person  of  Neighbor  P , 

and  away  we  fly  up  Julington.  A  creek  it  is 
called,  but  fully  as  wide  as  the  Connecticut  at 
Hartford,  and  wooded  to  the  water  on  either 
side  by  these  glorious  Florida  forests. 

It  is  a  late,  backward  spring  for  Florida  ;  and 
so  these  forests  are  behindhand  with  their 
foliage  :  yet  so  largely  do  they  consist  of  bright 
polished  evergreen  trees,  that  the  eye  scarcely 
feels  the  need  of  the  deciduous  foliage  on  which 
the  bright  misty  green  of  spring  lies  like  an 
uncertain  vapor.  There  is  a  large  admixture  in 
the  picture  of  the  cool  tints  of  the  gray  moss, 
which  drapes  every  tree,  and  hangs  in  long 
pendent  streamers  waving  in  the  wind.  The 
shores  of  the  creek  now  begin  to  be  lined  on 
either  side  with  tracts  of  a  water-lily  which  the 
natives  call  bonnets.  The  blossom  is  like  that 
of  our  yellow  pond-lily  ;  but  the  leaves  are  very 


72  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

,- 

broad  and  beautiful  as  they  float  like  green 
islands  on  the  blue  waters.  Here  and  there, 
even  in  the  centre  of  the  creek,  are  patches  of 
them  intermingled  with  quantities  of  the  water- 
lettuce,  —  a  floating  plant  .which  abounds  in 
these  tracts.  Along  the  edges  of  these  water-lily 
patches  are  the  favorite  haunts  of  the  fish,  who 
delight  to  find  shelter  among  the  green  leaves. 
So  the  yachts  come  to  anchor  ;  and  the  party 
divides  into  the  three  row-boats,  and  prepares  to 
proceed  to  business. 

We  have  some  bustle  in  distributing  our  stove 
and  tea-kettle  and  lunch-baskets  to  the  different 
boats,  as  we  are  to  row  far  up  stream,  and,  when 
we  have  caught  our  dinner,  land,  and  cook  it.  I 
sit  in  the  bow,  and,  being  good  for  nothing  in 
the  fishing-line,  make  myself  of  service  by 
holding  the  French  coffee-pot  in  my  lap.  The 
tea-kettle  being  at  my  feet  on  one  side,  the  stove 
on  the  other,  and  the  luncheon-basket  in  full 


PICNICKING   UP  JULINGTON.  73 

view  in  front,  I  consider  myself  as,  in  a  sense, 
at  housekeeping.  Meanwhile  the  fishing-reels 
are  produced,  the  lines  thrown  ;  and  the  profes 
sional  fishermen  and  fisherwomen  become  all 
absorbed  in  their  business.  We  row  slowly 
along  the  bobbing,  undulating  field  of  broad 
green  bonnet-leaves,  and  I  deliver  myself  to 
speculations  on  Nature.  The  roots  of  these 
water-lilies,  of  the  size  of  a  man's  arm,  often  lie 
floating  for  yards  on  the  surface,  and,  with  their 
scaly  joints,  look  like  black  serpents.  The 
ribbed  and  shining  leaves,  as  they  float  out  upon 
the  water,  are  very  graceful.  One  is  struck 
with  a  general  similarity  in  the  plant  and 
animal  growths  in  these  regions  :  the  element 
of  grotesqueness  seems  largely  to  enter  into  it. 
Roots  of  plants  become  scaly,  contorted,  and  lie 
in  convolutions  like  the  coils  of  a  serpent. 
Such  are  the  palmetto-shrubs,  whose  roots  lie  in 
scaly  folds  along  the  ground,  catching  into  the 


74  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

earth  by  strong  rootlets,  and  then  rising  up  here 
and  there  into  tall,  waving  green  fans,  whose 
graceful  beauty  in  the  depths  of  these  forests 
one  is  never  tired  of  admiring.  Amid  this 
serpent-like  and  convoluted  jungle  of  scaly 
roots,  how  natural  to  find  the  scaly  alligator, 
looking  like  an  animated  form  of  the  grotesque 
vegetable  world  around !  Sluggish,  unwieldy,  he 
seems  a  half-developed  animal,  coming  up  from 
a  plant,  —  perhaps  a  link  from  plant  to  animal. 
In  memory,  perhaps,  of  a  previous  woodland 
life,  he  fills  his  stomach  with  pine-knots,  and  bits 
of  board,  wherever  he  can  find  one  to  chew.  It 
is  his  way  of  taking  tobacco.  I  have  been  with 
a  hunter  who  dissected  one  of  these  creatures, 
and  seen  him  take  from  his  stomach  a  mass  of 
mingled  pine-knots,  with  bits  of  brick,  worn 
smooth,  as  if  the  digestive  fluids  had  somewhat 
corroded  them.  The  fore  leg  and  paw  of  the 
alligator  has  a  pitiful  and  rather  shocking  resem- 


PICNICKING  UP  JULINGTON.  ?$ 

btance  to  a  black  human  hand ;  and  the  muscular 
power  is  so  great,  that  in  case  of  the  particular 
alligator  I  speak  of,  even  after  his  head  was 
taken  off,  when  the  incision  was  made  into  the 
pectoral  muscle  for  the  purpose  of  skinning, 
this  black  hand  and  arm  rose  up,  and  gave  the 
operator  quite  a  formidable  push  in  the  chest. 

We  hope  to  see  some  of  these  creatures  out ; 
but  none  appear.  The  infrequency  of  their  ap 
pearance  marks  the  lateness  and  backwardness 
of  our  spring.  There  !  —  a  cry  of  victory  is 
heard  from  the  forward  boat ;  and  Mademoiselle 
Nelly  is  seen  energetically  working  her  elbows  : 
a  scuffle  ensues,  and  the  captive  has  a  free  berth 
on  a  boat,  without  charge  for  passage-ticket. 
We  shout  like  people  who  are  getting  hungry, 
as  in  truth  we  are.  And  now  Elsie  starts  in 
our  boat ;  and  all  is  commotion,  till  a  fine  blue 
bream,  spotted  with  black,  is  landed.  Next  a 
large  black  trout,  with  his  wide  yellow  mouth, 


?6  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

comes  up  unwillingly  from  the  crystal  flood.  \ye 
pity  them  ;  but  what  are  we  to  do  ?  It  is  a 
question  between  dinner  and  dinner.  These  fish, 
out  marketing  on  their  own  account,  darted  at 
our  hook,  expecting  to  catch  another  fish.  We 
catch  them  ;  and,  instead  of  eating,  they  are 
eaten. 

After  all,  the  instinct  of  hunting  and  catching 
something  is  as  strong  in  the  human  breast  as  in 
that  of  cat  or  tiger ;  and  we  all  share  the  exulta 
tion  which  sends  a  shout  from  boat  to  boat  as  a 
new  acquisition  is  added  to  our  prospective 
dinner-store. 

And  now  right  in  front  of  us  looms  up  from 
the  depth  of  a  group  of  pines  and  magnolias  a 
white  skeleton  of  a  tree,  with  gnarled  arms, 
bleached  by  years  of  wind  and  sun,  swathed 
with  long  waving  folds  of  gray  moss.  On  the 
very  tip-top  of  this,  proudly  above  all  possibility 
of  capture,  a  fish-hawk's  nest  is  built.  Full 


PICNICKING    UP  JULINGTON.  77 

eighty  feet  in  the  air,  and  about  the  size  of 
a  flour-barrel ;  built  like  an  old  marauding 
baron's  stronghold  in  the  middle  ages,  in  inac 
cessible  fastnesses  ;  lined  within  and  swathed 
without  with  gray  moss,  —  it  is  a  splendid  post  of 
observation.  We  can  see  the  white  head  and 
shoulders  of  the  bird  perched  upon  her  nest ; 
and  already  they  perceive  us.  The  pair  rise 
and  clap  their  wings,  and  discourse  to  each 
other  with  loud,  shrill  cries,  perhaps  of  indigna 
tion,  that  we  who  have  houses  to  dwell  in,  and 
beef  and  chickens  to  eat,  should  come  up  and 
invade  their  fishing-grounds. 

The  fish-hawk  —  I  beg  his  pardon,  the  fish- 
eagle  ;  for  I  can  see  that  he  is  a  bird  of  no  mean 
size  and  proportions  —  has  as  good  a  right  to 
think  that  the  river  and  the  fish  were  made  for 
him  as  we  ;  and  better  too,  because  the  Creator 
has  endowed  him  with  wonderful  eyesight,  which 
enables  him,  from  the  top  of  a  tree  eighty  feet 


78  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

high,  to  search  the  depths  of  the  river,  mark  his 
prey,  and  dive  down  with  unerring  certainty  to 
it.  He  has  his  charter  in  his  eyes,  his  beak, 
his  claws  ;  and  doubtless  he  has  a  right  to  re 
monstrate,  when  we,  who  have  neither  eyes, 
beaks,  nor  claws  adapted  to  the  purpose,  manage 
to  smuggle  away  his  dinner.  Thankful  are  we 
that  no  mighty  hunter  is  aboard,  and  that  the 
atrocity  of  shooting  a  bird  on  her  nest  will  not 
be  perpetrated  here.  We  are  a  harmless  com 
pany,  and  mean  so  well  by  them,  that  they 
really  might  allow  us  one  dinner  out  of  their 
larder. 

We  have  rowed  as  far  up  Julington  as  is  ex 
pedient,  considering  that  we  have  to  row  down 
again  ;  and  so  we  land  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  our  fish-eagle's  fortress,  greatly  to  his  discon 
tent.  Wild,  piercing  cries  come  to  us  now  and 
then  from  the  heights  of  the  eyry  ;  but  we,  un 
moved,  proceed  with  our  dinner-preparations. 


PICNICKING   UP  JULINGTON.  79 

Do  you  want  to  know  the  best  way  in  the 
world  of  cooking  fish  ?  Then  listen. 

The  fish  are  taken  to  the  river  by  one,  and 
simply  washed  of  their  superfluous  internals, 
though  by  no  means  scaled.  A  moment  pre 
pares  them  for  the  fire.  •  Meanwhile  a  broad 
hole  has  been  dug  in  the  smooth  white  sand ; 
and  a  fire  of  dry  light  wood  is  merrily  crackling 
therein.  The  kerosene-stove  is  set  a-going ;  the 
tea-kettle  filled,  and  put  on  to  boil ;  when  we  dis 
perse  to  examine  the  palmetto-jungles.  One 
or  two  parties  take  to  the  boats,  and  skim  a  little 
distance  up  stream,  where  was  a  grove  of  youth 
ful  palmetto-trees.  The  palmetto-shrub  is  es 
sentially  a  different  variety  from  the  tree.  In 
moist,  rich  land,  the  shrub  rears  a  high  head,  and 
looks  as  if  it  were  trying  to  become  a  tree  ;  but 
it  never  does  it.  The  leaf,  also,  is  essentially 
different.  The  full-grown  palm-leaf  is  three  or 
four  yards  long,  curiously  plaited  and  folded. 


80  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

,)  ^fflf.>*i* 

In  the  centre  of  both  palmetto  and  palm  is  the 
bud  from  whence  all  future  leaves  spring,  rising 
like  a  green  spike.  This  bud  is  in  great 
request  for  palmetto-hats  ;  and  all  manner  of 
palm-work  ;  and  it  was  for  these  buds  that  our 
boating-party  was  going.  A  venturesome  boy, 
by  climbing  a  neighboring  tree  and  jumping 
into  the  palm,  can  succeed  in  securing  this 
prize,  though  at  some  risk  of  life  and  limb. 
Our  party  returned  with  two  palm-buds  about 
two  yards  long,  and  one  or  two  of  the  long, 
graceful  leaves. 

But  now  the  fire  has  burned  low,  and  the 
sand-hole  is  thoroughly  heated.  "  Bring  me," 
says  the  presiding  cook,  "any  quantity  of  those 
great  broad  bonnet-leaves."  And  forth  impetu 
ous  rush  the  youth  ;  and  bonnet-leaves  cool  and 
dripping  are  forthcoming,  wherewith  we  double- 
line  the  hole  in  the  sand.  Then  heads  and 
points,  compactly  folded,  go  in  a  line  of  fish, 


PICNICKING   UP  JULINGTON.     •       8 1 

and  are  covered  down  green  and  comfortable 
with  a  double  blanket  of  dripping  bonnet-leaves. 
Then,  with  a  flat  board  for  our  shovel,  we  rake 
back  first  the  hot  sand,  and  then  the  coals  and 
brands  yet  remaining  of  the  fire.  Watches  are 
looked  at ;  and  it  is  agreed  by  old  hands  experi 
enced  in  clam-bakes  that  half  an  hour  shall  be 
given  to  complete  our  dinner. 

Meanwhile  the  steaming  tea-kettle  calls  for 
coffee,  and  the  French  coffee-pot  receives  its 
fragrant  store  ;  while  the  fish-hawk,  from  his  high 
tower  of  observation,  interjects  plaintive  notes 
of  remonstrance.  I  fancy  him  some  hoarse  old 
moralist,  gifted  with  uncomfortable  keen-sighted- 

ness,  forever   shrieking   down   protests   on   the 

i 
ways  of  the  thoughtless  children  of  men. 

What  are  we  doing  to  those  good  fish  of  his, 
which  he  could  prepare  for  the  table  in  much 
shorter  order  ?  An  old  hunter  who  has  some 
times  explored  the  ground  under  the  fish-hawk's 


82       «  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

nest  says  that  bushels  of  fish-bones  may  be 
found  there,  neatly  picked,  testifying  to  the 
excellent  appetite  which  prevails  in  those  cloud- 
regions,  and  to  the  efficiency  of  the  plan  of  eat 
ing  fish  au  naturel. 

We  wander  abroad,  and  find  great  blue  and 
white  violets  and  swamp-azaleas  along  the  river's 
brink ;  and  we  take  advantage  of  the  not  very 
dense  shade  of  a  long-leaved  pine  to  set  out  the 
contents  of  our  luncheon-baskets.  Ham-sand 
wiches,  hard-boiled  eggs,  cakes  in  tempting 
variety,  jellies  and  fruits,  make  their  appearance 
in  a  miscellaneous  sort  of  way.  And  now 
comes  the  great  operation  of  getting  out  our 
fish.  Without  shovel,  other  than  a  bit  of  in 
flammable  pine-board,  the  thing  presents  evi 
dent  difficulties :  but  it  must  be  done ;  and 
done  it  is. 

A  platter  is  improvised  of  two  large  palmetto- 
leaves.  The  fire  is  raked  off,  and  the  fish  emerge 


PICNICKING   UP  JULINGTON.  83 

from  their  baking-place,  somewhat  the  worse  as 
to  external  appearance  ;  but  we  bear  them  off  to 
the  feast.  In  the  trial  process  we  find  that  the 
whole  external  part  of  the  fish — scales,  skin,  and 
fins  —  comes  off,  leaving  the  meat  white  and 
pure,  and  deliciously  juicy.  A  bit  well  salted  and 
peppered  is  forthwith  transferred  to  each  plate ; 
and  all  agree  that  never  fish  was  better  and 
sweeter.  Then  coffee  is  served  round  ;  and  we 
feast,  and  are  merry.  When  the  meal  is  over,  we 
arrange  our  table  for  the  benefit  of  the  fish- 
hawks.  The  fragments  of  fish  yet  remaining, 
bits  of  bread  and  cake  and  cheese,  are  all  sys 
tematically  arranged  for  him  to  take  his  luncheon 
after  we  are  gone.  Mr.  Bergh  himself  could  not 
ask  more  exemplary  conduct. 

For  now  the  westering  sun  warns  us  that  it  is 
time  to  be  spreading  our  sails  homeward ;  and, 
well  pleased  all,  we  disperse  ourselves  into  our 
respective  boats,  to  fish  again  as  we  pass  the 


84  PALMETTO-LEA  VES, 

lily-pads  on  the  shore.  The  sport  engages  every 
one  on  board  except  myself,  who,  sitting  in 
the  end  of  the  boat,  have  leisure  to  observe  the 
wonderful  beauty  of  the  sky,  the  shadows  of  the 
forests-belts  in  the  water,  and  the  glorious  trees. 

One  magnolia  I  saw  that  deserved  to  be 
called  an  archangel  among  the  sons  of  the  for 
est.  Full  a  hundred  feet  high  it  stood,  with  a 
trunk  rising  straight,  round,  and  branchless  for 
full  fifty  feet,  and  crowned  with  a  glorious  head 
of  rich,  dark,  shining  leaves.  When  its  lily- 
blossoms  awake,  what  a  glory  will  it  become, 
all  alone  out  there  in  the  silent  forest,  with  only 
God  to  see ! 

No  :  let  us  believe,  with  Milton,  that 

"  Millions  of  spiritual  creatures  walk  the  earth 
Unseen,  both  when  we  wake  and  when  we  sleep ; " 

and  the  great  magnolia-trees  may  spring  and 
flower  for  them. 


PICNICKING   UP  JULINGTON.  85 

The  fishing  luck  still  continues  ;  and  the  pros 
pects  for  a  breakfast  to-morrow  morning  are 
bright.  One  great  fellow,  however,  makes  off 
with  hook,  spoon,  and  all ;  and  we  see  him  floun 
dering  among  the  lily-pads  with  it  in  his  mouth, 
vastly  dissatisfied  with  his  acquisition.  Like 
many  a  poor  fellow  in  the  world's  fishing,  he  has 
snapped  at  a  fine  bait,  and  got  a  sharp  hook  for 
his  pains. 

Now  we  come  back  to  the  yachts,  and  the 
fishing  is  over.  The  sun  is  just  going  down  as 
we  raise  our  white  sails  and  away  for  the  broad 
shining  expanse  of  the  St.  John's.  In  a  moment 
the  singers  of  our  party  break  forth  into  song 
and  glee  ;  and  catches  roll  over  the  water  from 
one  yacht  to  the  other  as  we  race  along  neck 
and  neck. 

The  evening  wind  rises  fresh  and  fair,  and  we 
sweep  down  the  beautiful  coast.  Great  bars  of 
opal  and  rose-color  lie  across  the  western,  sky : 


86  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

the  blue  waves  turn  rosy,  and  ripple  and  sparkle 
with  the  evening  light,  as  we  fly  along.  On  the 
distant  wharf  we  see  all  the  stay-at-homes 
watching  for  us  as  we  come  to  land  after  the 
most  successful  picnic  that  heart  could  conceive. 
Each  fisherwoman  has  her  fish  to  exhibit,  and 
her  exploits- to  recount ;  and  there  is  a  plentiful 
fish-breakfast  in  each  of  the  houses. 

So   goes   the   2Qth  of  February  on    the  St. 
John's. 


MAGNOLIA. 

MANPARIN,  FLA.,  March  6,  1872. 
[AGNOLIA  is  a  name  suggestive  of 
beauty ;  and,  for  once,  the  name  does 
not  belie  the  fact.  The  boarding- 
house  there  is  about  the  pleasantest  winter 
resort  in  Florida.  We  have  been  passing  a  day 
and  night  there  as  guest  of  some  friends,  and 
find  a  company  of  about  seventy  people  enjoy 
ing  themselves  after  the  usual  fashions  of  sum 
mer  watering-places.  The  house  is  situated  on  a 

87 


88  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

little  eminence,  and  commands  a  fine  sweep  of 
view  both  up  and  down  the  river.  In  the  usual 
fashion  of  Southern  life,  it  is  surrounded  with 
wide  verandas,  where  the  guests  pass  most  of 
their  time,  —  the  ladies  chatting,  and  working 
embroidery  ;  the  gentlemen  reading  newspapers, 
and  smoking. 

The  amusements  are  boating  and  fishing 
parties  of  longer  or  shorter  duration,  rides  and 
walks  along  the  shore,  or  croquet  on  a  fine, 
shady  croquet-ground  in  a  live-oak  grove  back 
of  the  house. 

We  tried  them  all.  First  we  went  in  a  row- 
boat  about  a  couple  of  miles  up  a  little  creek. 
The  shore  on  either  side  was  ruffled  with  the 
green  bonnet-leaves,  with  here  and  there  a 
golden  blossom.  The  forest-trees,  which  were 
large  and  lofty,  were  almost  entirely  of  the 
deciduous  kind,  which  was  just  bursting  into 
leaf;  and  the  effect  was  very  curious  and 


MAGNOLIA.  89 

peculiar.  One  has  often  remarked  what  a  misty 
effect  the  first  buddings  of  foliage  have.  Here 
there  was  a  mist  of  many  colors,  —  rose-colored, 
pink,  crimson,  yellow,  and  vivid  green,  the  hues 
of  the  young  leaves,  or  of  the  different  tags  and 
keys  of  the  different  species  of  trees.  Here  and 
there  a  wild  plum,  sheeted  in  brilliant  white, 
varied  the  tableau.  We  rowed  up  to  shore,  drew 
down  a  branch,  and  filled  the  laps  of  the  ladies 
with  sprays  of  white  flowers.  The  sun  beat 
down  upon  us  with  the  power  of  August ;  and, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  fresh  breeze  that  blew  up 
from  the  creek,  we  should  have  found  it  very 
oppressive.  We  returned  just  in  time  to  rest  for 
dinner.  The  dining-hall  is  spacious  and  cheer 
ful  ;  and  the  company  are  seated  at  small  tables, 
forming  social  groups  and  parties.  The  fare  was 
about  the  same  as  would  be  found  in  a  first-class 
boarding-house  at  the  North.  The  house  is 
furnished  throughout  in  a  very  agreeable  style  ; 


90  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

.->  $&(.?& 

and  an  invalid  could  nowhere  in  Florida  have 
more  comforts.  It  is  more  than  full,  and  con 
stantly  obliged  to  turn  away  applicants  ;  and  we 
understand  that  families  are  now  waiting  at 
Green  Cove  for  places  to  be  vacated  here.  We 
are  told  that  it  is  in  contemplation,  another 
season,  to  put  up  several  cottages,  to  be  rented 
to  families  who  will  board  at  the  hotel.  At 
present  there  is  connected  with  the  establish 
ment  one  house  and  a  cottage,  where  some  of 
the  guests  have  their  rooms  ;  and,  as  the  weather 
is  so  generally  mild,  even  invalids  find  no  objec 
tion  to  walking  to  their  meals. 

The  house  is  a  respectable,  good-sized,  old- 
fashioned  structure  ;  and,  being  away  from  the 
main  building,  is  preferred  by  some  who  feel  the 
need  of  more  entire  quiet.  Sitting  on  the  front 
steps  in  the  warm  afternoon  sunshine,  and  look 
ing  across  to  the  distant,  hazy  shores,  miles 
away,  one  could  fancy  one's  self  in  Italy,  —  an 


MAGNOLIA.  91 

illusion  which  the  great  clumps  of  aloes,  and  the 
tall  green  yuccas,  and  the  gold-fruited  orange- 
trees,  help  to  carry  out.  Groups  of  ladies  were 
seated  here  and  there  under  trees,  reading, 
working,  and  chatting.  We  were  called  off  by 
the  making-up  of  a  croquet-party. 

The  croquet-ground  is  under  the  shade  of  a 
fine  grove  of  live-oaks,  which,  with  their  sway 
ing  drapery  of  white  moss,  form  a  graceful  shade 
and  shelter.  We  shared  the  honor  of  gaining  a 
victory  or  two  under  the  banner  of  a  doctor  of 
divinity,  accustomed,  we  believe,  to  winning 
laurels  on  quite  other  fields  in  the  good  city  of 
New  York.  It  has  been  our  general  experience, 
however,  that  a  man  good  for  any  thing  else  is 
commonly  a  good  croquet-player.  We  would 
notify  your  editor-in-chief,  that,  if  ever  he  plays, 

a  game  against  Dr.  C ,  he  will  find  a  foeman, 

worthy  of  his  steel. 

In  the  evening  the  whole   company  gathered 


92  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

,•>    &9f,i&- 

in  the  parlors,  made  cheerful  by  blazing  wood- 
fires.  There  were  song-singing  and  piano-play 
ing,  charades  and  games,  to  pass  the  time 
withal ;  and  all  bore  testimony  to  the  very 
sociable  and  agreeable  manner  in  which  life 
moved  on  in  their  circle. 

Magnolia  is  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
from  Green-Cove  Springs,  where  are  two  or 
three  large,  well-kept  boarding-houses.  There 
is  a  very  pleasant,  shady  walk  through  the 
woods  from  one  place  to  the  other ;  and  the  mail 
comes  every  day  to  Green  Cove,  and  is  sent  for, 
from  the  Magnolia  House,  in  a  daily  morning 
carriage.  It  is  one  of  the  amusements  of  the 
guests  to  ride  over,  on  these  occasions,  for  a 
little  morning  gossip  and  shopping,  as  Magnolia, 
being  quite  sequestered,  does  not  present  the 
opportunity  to  chaffer  even  for  a  stick  of  candy. 
Of  course,  fair  ones  that  have  been  accustomed 
to  the  periodical  excitement  of  a  shopping-tour 


MAGNOLIA.  93 

would  sink  into  atrophy  without  an  opportunity 
to  spend  something.  What  they  can  buy  at 
Green  Cove  is  a  matter  of  indifference.  It  is 
the  burning  of  money  in  idle  purses  that  injures 
the  nervous  system. 

There  are  no  orange-groves  on  this  side  of 
the  river.  The  orange-trees  about  the  house  are 
entirely  of  the  wild  kind  ;  and,  for  merely  orna 
mental  purposes,  no  tree  more  beautiful  could  be 
devised.  Its  vivid  green,  the  deep  gold-color  of 
its  clusters  of  fruit,  and  the  exuberance  with 
which  it  blossoms,  all  go  to  recommend  it. 
Formerly  there  were  extensive  orange-groves, 
with  thousands  of  bearing  trees,  on  this  side  of 
the  river.  The  frost  of  1835  killed  the  trees, 
and  they  have  never  been  reset.  Oranges  are 
not,  therefore,  either  cheap  or  plenty  at  Mag 
nolia  or  Green  Cove.  Nothing  shows  more 
strikingly  the  want  of  enterprise  that  has  char 
acterized  this  country  than  this.  Seedling 


94  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

,•>    9f!f.^ 

oranges  planted  the  very  next  day  after  the  great 
frost  would  have  been  in  bearing  ten  years  after, 
and  would,  ere  now,  have  yielded  barrels  and 
barrels  of  fruit ;  and  the  trees  would  have  grown 
and  taken  care  of  themselves.  One  would  have 
thought  so  very  simple  and  easy  a  measure 
would  have  been  adopted. 

At  eleven  o'clock  the  next  morning  we  took 
steamer  for  Mandarin,  and  went  skimming  along 
the  shores,  watching  the  white-blossoming  plum- 
trees  amid  the  green  of  the  forest.  We  stopped 
at  Hibernia,  a  pleasant  boarding-house  on  an 
island  called  Fleming's,  after  a  rich  Col.  Flem 
ing  who  formerly  had  a  handsome  plantation 
there.  There  is  a  fine,  attractive-looking  coun 
try-house,  embowered  in  trees  and  with  shaded 
verandas,  where  about  forty  boarders  are  yearly 
accommodated.  We  have  heard  this  resort  very 
highly  praised  as  a  quiet  spot,  where  the  accom 
modations  are  homelike  and  comfortable.  It  is 


MAGNOLIA.  95 

kept  by  the  widow  of  the  former  proprietor  ;  and 
we  are  told  that  guests  who  once  go  there 
return  year  after  year.  There  is  something  cer 
tainly  very  peaceful  and  attractive  about  its  sur 
roundings. 

But  now  our  boat  is  once  more  drawing  up  to 
the  wharf  at  Mandarin  ;  and  we  must  defer  much 
that  we  have  to  say  till  next  week.  Phoebus,  we 
are  happy  to  say  to  our  girl  correspondents,  is 
bright  and  happy,  and  in  excellent  voice.  All 
day  long,  at  intervals,  we  can  hear  him  from  the 
back  veranda,  shouting,  "  What  cheer !  what 
cheer ! "  or  sometimes  abbreviating  it  as 
"  Cheer,  cheer,  cheer  !  " 

Since  we  have  been  writing,  one  of  those 
characteristic  changes  have  come  up  to  which 
this  latitude  is  subject.  The  sun  was  shining, 
the  river  blue,  the  windows  open,  and  the  family 
reading)  writing,  and  working  on  the  veranda, 
when  suddenly  comes  a  frown  of  Nature,  —  a 


96  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

>  &$?  .•**&• 

black  scowl  in  the  horizon.  Up  flies  the  wind  ; 
the  waves  are  all  white-caps  ;  the  blinds  bang ; 
the  windows  rattle ;  every  one  runs  to  shut  every 
thing ;  and  for  a  few  moments  it  blows  as  if  it 
would  take  house  and  all  away.  Down  drop 
oranges  in  a  golden  shower ;  here,  there,  and 
everywhere  the  lightning  flashes  ;  thunder 
cracks  and  rattles  and  rolls  ;  and  the  big  torrents 
of  rain  come  pouring  down :  but,  in  the  back- 
porch,  Phoebus  between  each  clap  persists  in 
shouting,  "  What  cheer  !  what  cheer  !  "  Like  a 
woman  in  a  passion,  Nature  ends  all  this  with  a 
burst  of  tears  ;  and  it  is  raining  now,  tenderly 
and  plaintively  as  if  bemoaning  itself. 

Well,  we  wouldn't  have  missed  the  sight  if  we 
had  been  asked ;  and  we  have  picked  up  a 
bushel  of  oranges  that  otherwise  somebody  must 
have  climbed  the  trees  for. 

Meanwhile  the  mail  is  closing.     Good-by  ! 


\/ 


YELLOW  JESSAMINES. 

MANDARIN,  FLA.,  March  14,  1872. 
HEY   talk   about   Florida   being   the 
land   of    flowers :    I'm    sure  /  don't 
see  where  the  flowers  are." 
The   speaker   was    a  trim    young   lady,   with 
pretty,  high-heeled  boots,   attired   in    all   those 
charming  mysteries   behind  and  before,  and  up 
and  down,  that  make  the  daughter  of  Eve  look 
like   some   bright,   strange,  tropical  bird.     She 
had  come  to  see  Florida  ;  that  is,  to  take  board 
7  97 


98  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

at  the  St.  James.  She  had  provided  herself 
with  half  a  dozen  different  palmetto-hats,  an 
orange-wood  cane  tipped  with  an  alligator's 
tooth,  together  with  an  assortment  of  cranes' 
wings  and  pink  curlews'  feathers,  and  talked  of 
Florida  with  the  assured  air  of  a  connoisseur. 
She  had  been  on  the  boat  up  to  Enterprise ;  she 
had  crossed  at  Tekoi  over  to  St.  Augustine,  and 
come  back  to  the  St.  James  ;  and  was  now  pre 
pared  to  speak  as  one  having  authority :  and  she 
was  sure  she  did  not  see  why  it  was  called  a 
land  of  flowers.  She  hadn't  seen  any. 

"  But,  my  dear  creature,  have  you  ever  been 
where  they  grow  ?  Have  you  walked  in  the 
woods  ? " 

"  Walked  in  the  woods  ?  Gracious  me  !  Of 
course  not !  Who  could  walk  in  sand  half  up  to 
one's  ankles  ?  I  tried  once  ;  and  the  sand  got 
into  my  boots,  and  soiled  my  stockings  :  besides, 
I'm  afraid  of  snakes." 


YELLOW  JESSAMINES.  99 

"  Then,  my  dear,  you  will  never  be  a  judge  on 
the  question  whether  Florida  is  or  is  not  a  land 
of  flowers.  Whoever  would  judge  on  that  ques 
tion  must  make  up  her  mind  to  good  long 
tramps  in  the  woods  ;  must  wear  stout  boots, 
with  India-rubbers,  or,  better  still,  high  India- 
rubber  boots.  So  equipped,  and  with  eyes  open 
to  see  what  is.  to  be  seen,  you  will  be  prepared 
to  explore  those  wild  glades  and  mysterious 
shadows  where  Nature's  beauties,  marvels,  and 
mysteries  are  wrought.  The  Veryus  of  these 
woods  is  only  unveiled  in  their  deepest  soli 
tudes." 

For  ourselves,  we  claim  to  have  experience  in 
this  matter  of  flowers  ;  having  always  observed 
them  in  all  lands.  We  were  impressed  more  by 
the  flowers  of  Italy  than  by  any  thing  else 
there ;  yes,  more  than  by  the  picture-galleries, 
the  statues,  the  old  ruins  The  sight  of  the 
.green  lawns  of  the  Pamfili  Doria,  all  bubbling 


100  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

up  in  little  rainbow-tinted  anemones  ;  the  cool 
dells  where  we  picked  great  blue-and-white 
violets  ;  the  damp,  mossy  shadows  in  the  Quiri- 
nal  gardens,  where  cyclamen  grow  in  crimson 
clouds  amid  a  crush  of  precious  old  marbles  and 
antiques  ;  the  lovely  flowers,  unnamed  of  botany, 
but  which  we  should  call  a  sort  of  glorified  blue- 
and-white  daisies,  that  we  gathered  in  the  shad 
owy  dells  near  Castle  Gandolpho,  —  these  have 
a  freshness  in  our  memory  that  will  last  when 
the  memory .  of  all  the  "  stun  images  "  of  the 
Vatican  has  passed  away. 

In  our  mind's  eye  we  have  compared  Florida 
with  Italy  often,  and  asked  if  it  can  equal  it. 
The  flowers  here  are  not  the  same,  it  is  true. 
The  blue  violets  are  not  fragrant.  We  do  not 
find  the  many-colored  anemones,  nor  the  cycla 
men.  Both  can  be  planted  out  here,  and  will 
grow  readily  ;  but  they  are  not  wild  flowers, 
not  indigenous. 


YELLOW  JESSAMINES. 

• "  Well,  then,  are  there  others  to  compen 
sate  ?  "  We  should  say  so. 

The  yellow  jessamine  itself,  in  its  wild  grace, 
with  its  violet-scented  breath,  its  profuse  abun 
dance,  is  more  than  a  substitute  for  the  anem 
ones  of  Italy. 

If  you  will  venture  to  walk  a  little  way  in  the 
sand  beyond  our  back-gate,  we  will  show  you  a 
flower-show  this  morning  such  as  Chiswick  or 
the  Crystal  Palace  cannot  equal. 

About  a  quarter  of  a  mile  we  walk :  and  then 
we  turn  in  to  what  is  called  here  an  oak-ham* 
mock  ;  which  is,  being  interpreted,  a  grove  of 
live-oak-trees,  with  an  underbrush  of  cedar, 
holly,  and  various  flowering-shrubs.  An  effort 
has  been  made  to  clear  up  this  hammock.  The 
larger  trees  have  some  of  them  been  cut  down, 
but  not  removed.  The  work  of  clearing  was 
abandoned ;  and,  the  place  being  left  to  Nature, 
she  proceeded  to  improve  and  beautify  it  after  a 


PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

•- "• i  ••       <  i\  ^' v  \  v<  ^ 

fashion  of  her  own.  The  yellow  jessamine, 
which  before  grew  under  the  shadow  of  the 
trees,  now,  exultant  in  the  sunshine  which  was 
let  in  upon  it,  has  made  a  triumphant  and 
abounding  growth,  such  as  we  never  saw  any 
where  else.  It  is  the  very  Ariel  of  flowers,  — 
the  tricksy  sprite,  full  of  life  and  grace  and 
sweetness ;  and  it  seems  to  take  a  capricious 
pleasure  in  rambling  everywhere,  and  masquer 
ading  in  the  foliage  of  every  kind  of  tree.  Now 
its  yellow  bells  twinkle  down  like  stars  from  the 
prickly  foliage  of  the  holly,  where  it  has 
taken  full  possession,  turning  the  solemn  old 
evergreen  into  a  blossoming  garland.  Now, 
sure  enough,  looking  up  full  sixty  feet  into  yon 
der  water-oak,  we  see  it  peeping  down  at  us  in 
long  festoons,  mingling  with  the  swaying,  crapy 
streamers  of  the  gray  moss.  Yonder  a  little 
live-oak-tree  has  been  so  completely  possessed 
and  beflowered,  that  it  shows  a  head  of  blossoms 


YELLOW  JESSAMINES.  1 03 

as  round  as  an  apple-tree  in  May.  You  look 
below,  and  jessamine  is  trailing  all  over '  the 
ground,  weaving  and  matting,  with  its  golden 
buds  and  open  bells  peeping  up  at  you  from  the 
huckleberry-bushes  and  sedge-grass.. 

Here  is  a  tree  overthrown,  and  raising  its 
gaunt,  knotted  branches  in  air,  veiled  with  soft 
mossy  drapery.  The  jessamine  springs  upon  it 
for  a  trellis  :  it  weaves  over  and  under  and 
around  ;  it  throws  off  long  sprays  and  streamers 
with  two  golden  buds  at  the  axil  of  every  green 
leaf,  and  fluttering  out  against  the  blue  of  the 
sky.  Its  multiform  sprays  twist  and  knot  and 
tie  themselves  in  wonderful  intricacies  ;  and  still 
where  every  green  leaf  starts  is  a  yellow  flower- 
bud.  The  beauty  of  these  buds  is  peculiar. 
They  have  little  sculptured  grooves  ;  and  the 
whole  looks  as  if  it  might  have  been  carved  of 
fairy  chrysolite  for  a  lady's  ear-drop.  Our  little 
brown  chambermaid  wears  them  dangling  in  her 


1 04  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

ears  ;  and  a  very  pretty  picture  she  makes  with 
them.  Coal-black  Frank  looks  admiringly  after 
her  as  she  trips  by  with  them  shaking  and 
twinkling  to  his  confusion,  as  he  forgets  for  a 
moment  to  saw  wood,  and  looks  longingly  after 
her.  No  use,  Frank.  "  Trust  her  not :  she  is 
fooling  thee."  Her  smiles  are  all  for  lighter-col 
ored  beaux.  But  still  she  wears  yellow  jessa 
mine  in  her  crapy  hair,  and  orders  Frank  to 
bring  her  wreaths  and  sprays  of  it  whenever  she 
wants  it ;  and  Frank  obeys.  That's  female 
sovereignty,  the  world  over ! 

In  this  same  hammock  are  certain  tall,  grace 
ful  shrubs,  belonging,  as  we  fancy,  to  the 
high-huckleberry  tribe,  but  which  the  Floridi- 
ans  call  sparkleberry.  It  is  the  most  beautiful 
white  ornamental  shrub  we  have  ever  seen. 
Imagine  a  shrub  with  vivid  green  foliage,  hang 
ing  profusely  with  wreaths  of  lilies-of-the- valley, 
and  you  have  as  near  as  possible  an  idea  of  the 


YELLOW  JESSAMINES.  IOS 

sparkleberry.  It  is  only  in  bud  now,  being  a 
little  later  than  the  jessamine,  and  coming  into 
its  glory  when  the  jessamine  is  passing  away. 

The  regular  employment  now  of  every  after 
noon  is  to  go  out  in  the  mule-cart  with  old  Fly 
into  the  woods,  flower-hunting. 

It  is  as  lovely  an  afternoon-work  as  heart 
could  wish ;  the  sky  is  so  blue,  the  air  so 
balmy,  and  at  every  step  there  is  something  new 
to  admire.  The  coming-out  of  the  first  leaves 
and  tags  and  blossom-keys  of  the  deciduous 
trees  has  a  vividness  and  brilliancy  peculiar  to 
these  regions.  The  oak-hammock  we  have  been 
describing  as  the  haunt  of  yellow  jessamine  is 
as  picturesque  and  beautiful  a  tree-study  as  an 
artist  could  desire.  There  are  tall,  dark  cedars, 
in  which  the  gray  films  of  the  long  moss  have  a 
peculiarly  light  and  airy  appearance.  There  is 
the  majestic  dome  of  the  long-leaved  Southern 
pine,  rising  high  over  all  the  other  trees,  as  in 


1 06  PA  LME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

Italy  the  stone-pine.  Its  leaves  are  from  twelve 
to  eighteen  inches  long ;  and  the  swaying  of 
such  pines  makes  a  susurrus  worth  listening 
to.  The  water-oak  is  throwing  out  its  bright 
young  leaves  of  a  gold-tinted  green  ;  and  the 
live-oak,  whose  leaves  are  falling  now,  is  burst 
ing  into  little  velvety  tags,  premonitory  of  new 
foliage.  Four  species  of  oaks  we  notice.  The 
live-oak,  the  water-oak,  and  a  species  of  scrub- 
tree  which  they  call  the  olive-leaved  oak,  are 
all  evergreens,  and  have  narrow,  smooth  leaves. 
Then  there  are  what  are  familiarly  called  black 
jacks,  —  a  deciduous  oak,  which  bears  a  large, 
sharply-cut,  indented  leaf,  of  a  character  resem 
bling  our  Northern  ones.  Besides  these,  the 
prickly-ash,  with  its  curiously  knobbed  and 
pointed  branches,  and  its  graceful,  feathery 
leaves,  forms  a  feature  in  the  scene.  Under 
neath,  great  clumps  of  prickly-pear  are  throwing 
out  their  queer  buds,  to  be,  in  turn,  followed  by 
bright  yellow  blossoms. 


YELLOW  JESSAMINES.  IO/ 

To  an  uninstructed  eye,  the  pine-woods  in 
which  we  ride  look  like  a  flat,  monotonous 
scene.  The  pines  rise  seventy,  eighty,  and  a 
hundred  feet  in  the  air,  so  that  their  tops  are  far 
above,  and  cast  no  shade.  This  is  a  considera 
tion  of  value,  however,  for  a  winter's  ride  ;  for 
one  enjoys  the  calm  sunshine.  Even  in  days 
when  high  winds  are  prevailing  along  the  river 
front,  the  depth  of  these  pine-woods  is  calm, 
sunny,  and  still ;  and  one  can  always  have  a 
pleasant  walk  there.  When  the  hotter  months 
come  on,  the  live-oaks  and  water-oaks  have 
thick,  new  foliage,  and  the  black-jacks  and  hick 
ory  and  sweet-gum  trees  throw  out  their  shade 
to  shelter  the  traveller.  Every  mile  or  two,  our 
path  is  traversed  by  a  brook  on  its  way  to  the 
St.  John's.  The  natives  here  call  a  brook  a 
"  branch  ; "  and  a  branch  is  no  small  circum 
stance,  since  all  the  finest  trees  and  shrubbery 
grow  upon  its  banks.  You  can  look  through 


1 08  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

the  high,  open  pillars  of  the  pine-trees,  and 
watch  the  course  of  a  branch  half  a  mile  from 
you  by  the  gorgeous  vegetation  of  the  trees 
which  line  its  shores. 

We  jog  along  in  our  mule-cart,  admiring  every 
thing  as  we  go.  We  are  constantly  exclaiming 
at  something,  and  tempted  to  get  out  to  gather 
flowers.  Here  and  there  through  the  long 
wire-grass  come  perfect  gushes  of  blue  and 
white  violets.  The  blue  violets  are  large,  and, 
of  necessity,  are  obliged  to  put  forth  very  long 
stems  to  get  above  the  coarse,  matted  grass. 
The  white  are  very  fragrant,  and  perfectly 
whiten  the  ground  in  some  moist  places. 
There  is  a  large,  fragrant  kind,  very  scarce  and 
rare,  but  of  which  we  have  secured  several 
roots.  We  are  going  this  afternoon  to  the 
"  second  branch "  after  azaleas.  We  stop  at  a 
little  distance,  when  its  wall  of  glossy  verdure 
rises  up  before  us.  There  is  no  accomplishment 


YELLOW  JESSAMINES. 

of  a  mule  in  which  Fly  is  better  versed  than 
stopping  and  standing  still.  We  fancy  that  we 
hear  him,  in  his  inner  consciousness,  making  a 
merit  of  it,  as  we  all  do  of  our  pet  virtues.  He 
is  none  of  your  frisky  fellows,,  always  wanting  to 
be  going,  and  endangering  everybody  that  wants 
to  get  in  or  out  with  prances  and  curvets,  —  not 
he !  He  is  a  beast  that  may  be  trusted  to  stand 
for  any  length  of  time  without  an  attempt  at 
motion.  Catch  him  running  away !  So  we 
leave  Fly,  and  determine  to  explore  the  branch. 

The  short  palmettoes  here  are  grown  to  the 
height  of  fifteen  feet.  Their  roots  look  like 
great  scaly  serpents,  which,  after  knotting  and 
convoluting  a  while,  suddenly  raise  their  crests 
high  in  air,  and  burst  forth  into  a  graceful  crest 
of  waving  green  fans.  These  waving  clumps  of 
fan-like  leaves  are  the  first  and  peculiar  feature 
of  the  foliage.  Along  the  shore  here,  clumps 
of  pale  pink  azaleas  grow  high  up,  and  fill  the 


1 10  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

air  with  sweetness.  It  is  for  azaleas  we  are 
come  ;  and  so  we  tread  our  way  cautiously,  — 
cautiously,  because  we  have  heard  tales  of  the 
moccasin-snake  —  fearful  gnome  !  —  said  to  infest 
damp  places,  and  banks  of  rivers.  In  all  our 
Floridian  rambles,  we  never  yet  have  got  sight 
of  this  creature  ;  though  we  have  explored  all 
the  moist  places,  and  sedgy,  swampy  dells, 
where  azaleas  and  blue  iris  and  white  lilies 
grow.  But  the  tradition  that  such  things  are 
inspires  a  wholesome  care  never  to  set  a  foot 
down  without  looking  exactly  where  it  goes. 
"  The  branch,"  we  find,  is  lighted  up  in  many 
places  by  the  white,  showy  blossoms  of  the  dog 
wood,  of  which,  also,  we  gather  great  store.  We 
pile  in  flowers  —  azalea  and  dogwood  —  till  our 
wagon  is  full,  and  then  proceed  with  a  trowel  to 
take  up  many  nameless  beauties. 

There  is  one  which  grows   on  a  high,  slender 
stalk,  resembling  hi  its  form  a  primrose,  that  has 


YELLOW  JESSAMINES.  Ill 

the  purest  and  intensest  yellow  that  we  ever 
saw  in  a  flower.  There  is  a  purple  variety  of 
the  same  species,  that  grows  in  the  same  neigh 
borhoods.  We  have  made  a  bed  of  these  wood 
land  beauties  at  the  roots  of  our  great  oak,  so 
that  they  may  finish  their  growth,  and  seed,  if 
possible,  under  our  own  eye. 

By  the  by,  we  take  this  occasion  to  tell  the 
lady  who  writes  to  beg  of  us  to  send  her  some 
seeds  or  roots  of  Florida  plants  or  flowers,  that 
we  have  put  her  letter  on  file,  and  perhaps,  some 
•day,  may  find  something  to  send  her.  Any  one 
who  loves  flowers  touches  a  kindred  spot  in  our 
heart.  The  difficulty  with  all  these  flowers  and 
roots  sent  North  is,  that  they  need  the  heat  of 
this  climate  to  bring  them  to  perfection.  Still 
there  is  no  saying  what  a  real  plant-lover  may 
do  in  coaxing  along  exotics.  The  "  run "  we 
have  been  exploring  has,  we  are  told,  in  the  sea 
son  of  them,  beautiful  blue  wisteria  climbing 


1 1 2  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

from  branch  to  branch.  It  does  not  come  till 
after  the  yellow  jessamine  is  gone.  The  coral- 
honeysuckle  and  a  species  of  trumpet-creeper 
also  grow  here,  and,  in  a  little  time,  will  be  in 
full  flower.  One  of  our  party  called  us  into  the 
*  run,  and  bade  us  admire  a  beautiful  shrub,  some 
fifteen  feet  high,  whose  curious,  sharply-cut, 
deep-green  leaves  were  shining  with  that  glossy 
polish  which  gives  such  brilliance.  Its  leaves 
were  of  waxen  thickness,  its  habit  of  growth 
peculiarly  graceful  ;  and  our  colored  handmaid 
en,  who  knows  the  habits  of  every  plant  in  our 
vicinity,  tells  us  that  it  bears  a  white,  sweet 
blossom,  some  weeks  later.  We  mentally  resolve 
to  appropriate  this  fair  Daphne  of  the  woods  on 
the  first  opportunity  when  hands  can  be  spared 
to  take  it  up  and  transport  it. 

But  now  the  sun  falls  west,  and  we  plod 
homeward.  If  you  want  to  see  a  new  and 
peculiar  beauty,  watch  a  golden  sunset  through 


YELLOW  JESSAMINES.  113 

a  grove  draperied  with  gray  moss.  The  sway 
ing,  filmy  bands  turn  golden  and  rose-colored  ; 
and  the  long,  swaying  avenues  are  like  a  scene 
in  fairyland.  We  come  home,  and  disembark 
our  treasures.  Our  house  looks  like  a  perfect 
flower-show.  Every  available  vase  and  jar  is 
full,  —  dogwood,  azaleas,  blue  iris,  wreaths  of 
yellow  jessamine,  blue  and  white  violets,  and 
the  golden  unknown,  which  we  christen  prim 
roses.  The  daily  sorting  of  the  vases  is  no 
small  charge  :  but  there  is  a  hand  to  that  depart 
ment  which  never  neglects  ;  and  so  we  breathe 
their  air  and  refresh  our  eyes  with  their  beauty 
daily. 

Your  cold  Northern  snow-storms  hold  back 
our  spring.  The  orange-buds  appear,  but  hang 
back.  They  are  three  weeks  later  than  usual. 
Our  letters  tell  us  frightful  stories  of  thermome 
ters  no  end  of  the  way  below  zero.  When  you 
have  a  snow-storm,  we  have  a  cold  rain  :  so  you 

8 


1 1 4  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

must    keep    bright  lookout    on    your   ways    up 
there,  or  we  shall  get  no  orange-blossoms. 

We  have  received  several  letters  containing 
questions  about  Florida.  It  is  our  intention  to 
devote  our  next  paper  to  answering  these.  We 
are  perfectly  ready  to  answer  any  number  of 
inquiries,  so  long  as  we  can  lump  them  all 
together,  and  answer  them  through  "  The  Chris 
tian  Union." 

One  class  of  letters,  however,  we  cannot  too 
thankfully  remember.  Those  who  have  read  our 
papers  with  so  much  of  sympathy  as  to  send  in 
contributions  to  our  church  here  have  done  us 
great  good.  We  have  now  a  sum  contributed 
with  which  we  hope  soon  to  replace  our  loss. 
And  now,  as  the  mail  is  closing,  we  must  close. 

P.  S.  —  We  wish  you  could  see  a  gigantic  bou 
quet  that  Mr.  S has  just  brought  in  from 

the   hummock.     A   little   shrub-oak,  about  five 


YELLOW  JESSAMINES.  11$ 

feet  high,  whose  spreading  top  is  all  a  golden 
mass  of  bloom  with  yellow  jessamine,  he  has  cut 
down,  and  borne  home  in  triumph. 

What  an  adornment  would  this  be  for  one  of 
the  gigantic  Japanese  vases  that  figure  in  New- 
York  drawing-rooms !  What  would  such  a  bou 
quet  sell  for  ? 


"FLORIDA   FOR   INVALIDS." 

find    an  aggrieved   feeling  in  the 
minds    of    the    Floridian   public   in 
view  of  a  letter  in  "  The  Independ 
ent,"  by  Dr. ,  headed  as  above  ;  and  we  have 

been  urgently  requested  to  say  something  on  the 
other  view  of  the  question. 

Little  did  we  suppose  when  we  met  our  good 
friend  at  Magnolia,  apparently  in  the  height  of 
spirits,  the  life  of  the  establishment,  and  head 
promoter  of  all  sorts  of  hilarity,  that,  under  all 

116 


"FLORIDA   FOR  INVALIDS."  1 1/ 

this  delightful  cheerfulness,  he  was  contending 
with  such  dreary  experiences  as  his  article  in 
"  The  Independent  "  would  lead  one  to  suppose. 
Really,  any  one  who  should  know  the  doctor 
only  from  that  article  might  mistake  him  for  a 
wretched  hypochondriac  ;  whereas  we  saw  him, 
and  heard  of  him  by  universal  repute  at  Magno 
lia,  as  one  of  the  cheeriest  and  sunniest  of  the 
inmates,  taking  every  thing  by  the  smoothest 
handle,  and  not  only  looking  on  the  bright  side 
himself,  but  making  everybody  else  do  the  same. 
Imagine,  therefore,  our  utter  astonishment  at 
finding  our  buoyant  doctor  summing  up  his 
Florida  experience  in  such  paragraphs  as 
these  :  — 

"  From  what  I  have  observed,  I  should  think 
Florida  was  nine-tenths  water,  and  the  other 
tenth  swamp.  Many  are  deceived  by  the  milder 
climate  here;  and  down  they  come  —  to  die. 
The  mildness,  too,  is  exaggerated.  Yesterday 


1 1 8  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

•»  unN 
morning,   the    thermometer   was    at    thirty-six 

degrees.  Outside,  our  winter  overcoats  were 
necessary ;  and  great  wood-fires  roared  within. 
Now  and  then  the  thermometer  reaches  eighty 
degrees  at  mid-day ;  but,  that  very  night,  you 
may  have  frost. 

"Another  fact  of  Florida  is  malaria.  How 
could  it  be  otherwise  ?  Souse  Manhattan  Island 
two  feet  deep  in  fresh  water,  and  wouldn't  the 
price  of  quinine  rise  ? 

"  I  have  no  objection  to  the  term  '  sunny 
South  ;'  it  is  a  pretty  alliteration  :  but  I  object  to 
its  application  to  Georgia  and  Florida  in  Febru 
ary.  I  wish  you  could  have  seen  me  last  Friday 
night.  We  were  riding  two  hundred  and  sixty 
miles  through  a  swamp,  —  Okefinokee  of  the 
geographies.  I  was  clad  in  full  winter  suit, 
with  heavy  Russian  overcoat." 

But  a  careful  comparison  of  the  incidents  in 
his  letter  solves  the  mystery.  The  letter  was 


"FLORIDA   FOR  INVALIDS."  IIQ 

written  in  an  early  date  in  the  doctor's  Floridian 
experience,  and  before  he  had  had  an  opportunity 
of  experiencing  the  benefit  which  he  subse 
quently  reaped  from  it. 

We  perceive  by  the  reference  to  last  Friday 
night,  and  the  ride  through  Okefinokee  Swamp, 
that  the  doctor  was  then  fresh  from  the  North, 
and  undergoing  that  process  of  disenchant 
ment  which  many  Northern  travellers  experi 
ence,  particularly  those  who  come  by  railroad. 
The  most  ardent  friends  of  Florida  must  admit 
that  this  railroad  is  by  no  means  a  prepos 
sessing  approach  to  the  land  of  promise ;  and 
the  midnight  cold  upon  it  is  something  likely  to 
be  had  in  remembrance.  When  we  crossed  it, 
however,  we  had  a  stove,  which  was  a  small  imi 
tation  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  furnace,  to  keep  us 
in  heart  Otherwise  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
truth  in  our  friend's  allegations.  As  we  have 
elsewhere  remarked,  every  place,  like  a  bit  of 


1 20  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

tapestry,  has  its  right  side  and  its  wrong  side  ; 
and  both  are  true  and  real,  —  the  wrong  side 
with  its  tags  and  rags,  and  seams  and  knots,  and 
thrums  of  worsted,  and  the  right  side  with  its 
pretty  picture. 

It  is  true,  as  the  doctor  says,  that  some  in 
valids  do  come  here,  expose  themselves  impru 
dently,  and  die.  People  do  die  in  Florida,  if 
they  use  the  means  quite  as  successfully  as  in 
New  York.  It  is  true  that  sometimes  the  ther 
mometer  stands  at  seventy  at  noon,  and  that  the 
nights  are  much  cooler ;  it  is  true  we  have 
sometimes  severe  frosts  in  Florida ;  it  is  true 
we  have  malaria ;  it  is  true  that  there  are 
swamps  in  Florida ;  and  it  is  quite  apt  to  be  true, 
that,  if  a  man  rides  a  hundred  miles  through  a 
swamp  at  night,  he  will  feel  pretty  chilly. 

All  these  are  undeniable  truths.  We  never 
pretended  that  Florida  was  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  or  the  land  where  they  shall  no  more 


"FLORIDA   FOR  INVALIDS."  121 

say,  "  I  am  sick."  It  is  quite  the  reverse. 
People  this  very  winter  have  in  our  neighbor 
hood  had  severe  attacks  of  pneumonia  ;  and  un 
doubtedly  many  have  come  to  Florida  seeking 
health,  and  have  not  found  it. 

Yet,  on  the  other. hand,  there  are  now  living 
in  Florida  many  old  established  citizens  and 
land-owners  who  came  here  ten,  twenty,  and 
thirty  years  ago,  given  over  in  consumption, 
who  have  here  for  years  enjoyed  a  happy  and 
vigorous  life  in  spite  of  Okefinokee  Swamp  and 
the  malaria. 

Undoubtedly  the  country  would  be  much  bet 
ter  to  live  in  if  there  were  no  swamps  and  no 
malaria  ;  and  so,  also,  New  England  would  be 
better  to  live  in  if  there  were  not  six  months 
winter  and  three  more  months  of  cold  weather 
there.  As  to  malaria,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
souse  Manhattan  Island  under  water  to  get  that 
in  and  around  New  York.  The  new  lands  in 


1 22  PALME TTO-LEA  VES. 

New  York  will  give  you  chills  and  fever  quite  as 
well  as  Florida.  You  can  find  malarial  fevers 
almost  anywhere  in  the  towns  between  New 
York  and  New  Haven  ;  and  it  is  notorious  that 
many  estates  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  sell  cheap  on  that  very  account, 
because  they  are  almost  as  malarious  as  some 
Italian  villas. 

Florida  is  not  quite  so  bad  as  that  yet, 
although  it  has  its  share  of  that  malaria  which 
attends  the  development  of  land  in  a  new  coun 
try.  -But  the  malarial  fevers  here  are  of  a  mild 
type,  and  easily  managed  ;  and  they  are  generally 
confined  to  the  fall  months.  The  situation  of 
Florida,  surrounded  by  the  sea,  and  the  free 
sweep  of  winds  across  it,  temper  the  air,  and 
blow  away  malarious  gases. 

In  regard  to  consumptives  and  all  other 
invalids,  the  influence  of  a  Floridian  climate 
depends  very  much  on  the  nature  of  the  case 
and  the  constitution  of  the  individual. 


"FLORIDA   FOR  INVALIDS."  12$ 

If  persons  suffer  constitutionally  from  cold  ;  if 
they  are  bright  and  well  only  in  hot  weather  ;  if 
the  winter  chills  and  benumbs  them,  till,  in  the 
spring,  they  are  in  the  condition  of  a  frost-bitten 
hot-house  plant,  —  alive,  to  be  sure,  but  with 
every  leaf  gone,  —  then  these  persons  may  be 
quite  sure  that  they  will  be  the  better  for  a  win 
ter  in  Florida,  and  better  still  if  they  can  take 
up  their  abode  there. 

But  if,  on  the  contrary,  persons  are  debilitated 
and  wretched  during  hot  weather,  and  if  cool 
weather  braces  them,  and  gives  them  vigor  and 
life,  then  such  evidently  have  no  call  to  Florida, 
and  should  be  booked  for  Minnesota,  or  some 
other  dry,  cold  climate.  There  are  consump 
tives  belonging  to  both  these  classes  of  constitu 
tion  ;  and  the  coming  of  one  of  the  wrong  kind 
to  Florida  is  of  no  use  to  himself,  and  is  sure  to 
bring  discredit  on  the  country.  A  little  good 
common  sense  and  reflection  will  settle  that 
matter. 


1 24  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

Again  :  there  is  a  form  of  what  passes  for  con 
sumption,  which  is,  after  all,  some  modification 
of  liver-complaint ;  and,  so  far  as  we  have  heard 
or  observed,  Florida  is  no  place  for  these  cases. 
The  diseases  here  are  of  the  bilious  type  ;  and 
those  who  have  liver-complaint  are  apt  to  grow 
worse  rather  than  better.  But  there  are  classes 
of  persons  on  whom  the  climate  of  Florida  acts 
like  a  charm. 

There  are  certain  nervously-organized  dyspep 
tics  who  require  a  great  deal  of  open,  out-door 
life.  They  are  in  comfortable  health  during 
those  months  when  they  can  spend  half  their 
time  in  the  open  air.  They  have  no  particular 
disease  ;  but  they  have  no  great  reserved 
strength,  and  cannot  battle  with  severe  weather. 
They  cannot  go  out  in  snow  or  wind,  or  on 
chilly,  stormy  days,  without  risking  more  harm 
than  they  get  good.  Such,  in  our  Northern 
climate,  are  kept  close  prisoners  for  six  months. 


"FLORIDA   FOR  INVALIDS."  125 

From  December  to  May,  they  are  shut  in  to 
furnace-heated  houses  or  air-tight  stoves.  The 
winter  is  one  long  struggle  to  keep  themselves 
up.  For  want  of  the  out-door  exercise  which 
sustains  them  in  summer,  appetite  and  sleep 
both  fail  them.  They  have  restless  nights  and 
bad  digestion,  and  look  anxiously  to  the  end  of 
winter  as  the  only  relief.  For  such  how  slowly 
it  drags  !  They  watch  the  almanac.  The  sun 
crosses  the  line  ;  the  days  grow  a  minute  longer  : 
spring  will  come  by  and  by.  But  by  what  cruel 
irony  was  the  month  of  March  ever  called 
spring  ?  —  March,  which  piles  snow-storms  and 
wind-storms  on  backs  almost  broken  by  endur 
ance.  The  long  agony  of  March  and  April 
is  the  breaking-point  with  many  a  delicate  per 
son  who  has  borne  pretty  well  the  regular 
winter. 

Said   one  who    did    much    work,  "  I    bear  it 
pretty  well  through  December.     I  don't  so  much 


1 26  PA LME TTO-LEA  VES. 

-    Kflr^igt 

mind  January.  February  tires  me  a  little ;  but  I 
face  it  bravely.  But  by  March  I  begin  to  say, 
'  Well,  if  this  don't  stop  pretty  soon,  /  shall :  I 
can't  get  much  farther.' "  But  our  heaviest 
snow-storms  and  most  savage  cold  are  often 
reserved  for  March ;  and  to  many  an  invalid  it 
has  given  the  final  thrust :  it  is  the  last  straw 
that  breaks  the  camel's  back.  But  after  March, 
in  New  England,  comes  April,  utterly  untrust 
worthy,  and  with  no  assured  out-door  life  for  a 
delicate  person.  As  to  the  month  of  May,  the 
poet  Cowper  has  a  lively  poem  ridiculing  the 
poets  who  have  made  the  charms  of  May  the  sub 
ject  of  their  songs.  Mother  Nature  is  repre 
sented  as  thus  addressing  them  :  — 


Since  you  have  thus  combined,'  she  said, 
*  My  favorite  nymph  to  slight, 

Adorning  May,  that  peevish  maid, 
With  June's  undoubted  right, 


"FLORIDA   FOR  INVALIDS."  I2/ 

The  minx,  cursed  for  your  folly's  sake, 

Shall  prove  herself  a  shrew  ; 
Shall  make  your  scribbling  fingers  ache, 

And  bite  your  noses  blue.'  " 

Which  she  generally  does. 

So  it  is  not  really  till  June  that  delicately-con 
stituted  persons,  or  persons  of  impaired  vigor, 
really  feel  themselves  out  of  prison.  They  have 
then  about  five  months  at  most  in  which  they 
can  live  an  open-air  life,  before  the  prison-doors 
close  on  them  again. 

Now,  the  persons  who  would  be  most  bene 
fited  by  coming  to  Florida  are  not  the  desper 
ately  diseased,  the  confirmed  consumptives,  but 
those  of  such  impaired  physical  vigor  that  they 
are  in  danger  of  becoming  so.  An  ounce  of 
prevention  here  is  worth  many  pounds  of  cure. 
It  is  too  often  the  case  that  the  care  and  expense 
that  might  have  prevented  disease  from  settling 
are  spent  in  vain  after  it  has  once  fastened.  Sad 


1 28  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

it  is  indeed  to  see  the  wan  and  wasted  faces,  and 
hear  the  hollow  death-cough,  of  those  who  have 
been  brought  here  too  late.  Yet,  in  hundreds 
of  instances,  yes,  in  thousands,  where  one  more 
severe  Northern  winter  would  have  fastened 
disease  on  the  vitals,  a  winter  in  a  Southern 
climate  has  broken  the  spell.  The  climate  of 
Florida  is  also  of  peculiar  advantage  in  all 
diseases  attended  by  nervous  excitability.  The 
air  is  peculiarly  soothing  and  tranquillizing  :  it  is 
the  veritable  lotos-eater's  paradise,  full  of  quiet 
and  repose.  We  have  known  cases  where  the 
sleeplessness  of  years  has  given  way,  under  this 
balmy  influence,  to  the  most  childlike  habit  of 
slumber. 

For  debility,  and  the  complaints  that  spring 
from  debility,  Florida  is  not  so  good  a  refuge,  per 
haps,  as  some  more  northern  point,  like  Aiken. 
The  air  here  is  soothing,  but  not  particularly 
bracing.  It  builds  up  and  strengthens,  not  by 


"FLORIDA   FOR  INVALIDS."  1 29 

any  tonic  effect  in  itself  so  much  as  by  the  op 
portunity  for  constant  open-air  life  and  exercise 
which  it  affords. 

For  children,  the  climate  cannot  be  too  much 
praised.  In  our  little  neighborhood  are  seven 
about  as  lively  youngsters  as  could  often  be  met 
with  ;  and  the  winter  has  been  one  long  out-door 
play-spell.  There  has  not  been  a  cough,  nor  a 
cold,  nor  an  ailment  of  any  kind,  and  scarce  an 
anxiety.  All  day  long  we  hear  their  running 
and  racing,  —  down  to  the  boat- wharves  ;  in  the 
boats,  which  they  manage  as  dexterously  as 
little  Sandwich  -  Islanders  ;  fishing  ;  catching 
crabs,  or  off  after  flowers  in  the  woods,  with  no 
trouble  of  hail,  sleet,  or  wet  feet.  Truly  it  is  a 
child's  Eden  ;  and  they  grow  and  thrive  accord 
ingly. 

Now  as  to  malaria.  That  is  a  word  requiring 
consideration  to  those  who  expect  to  make 
Florida  a  permanent  home,  but  having  no  terrors 

9 


130  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

for  those  who   come   to  spend  winters  merely 

There  is  no  malaria  in  winter ;  and  Dr.  C 

may  be  consoled  in  reflecting  that  frost  always 
destroys  it :  so  that,  when  the  thermometer  is,  as 
he  says,  at  thirty-two  degrees,  there  is  no  danger, 
even  though  one  be  in  the  same  State  with  forty 
swamps.  In  fact,  for  ourselves,  we  prefer  a  cool 
winter  such  as  this  has  been.  An  October-like 
winter,  when  it  is  warm  in  the  middle  of  the 
day,  and  one  can  enjoy  a  bright  fire  on  the 
hearth  morning  and  night,  is  the  most  favorable 
to  out-door  exercise  and  to  health. 

But  merely  to  come  to  Florida,  and  idle  away 
time  at  the  St.  James  or  the  St.  Augustine 
Hotel,  taking  no  regular  exercise,  and  having  no 
employment  for  mind  or  body,  is  no  way  to  im 
prove  by  being  here.  It  is  because  the  climate 
gives  opportunity  of  open-air  exercise  that  it  is 
so  favorable  ;  but,  if  one  neglects  all  these  op 
portunities,  he  may  gain  very  little. 


"FLORIDA   FOR  INVALIDS."*  131 

It  cannot  be  too  often  impressed  on  strangers 
coming  here,  that  what  cold  there  is  will  be 
more  keenly  felt  than  in  a  Northern  climate. 
Persons  should  vary  their  clothing  carefully  to 
the  varying  temperature,  and  be  quite  as  careful 
to  go  warmly  clad  as  in  colder  States.  In  our 
furnace-heated  houses  at  the  North  we  generally 
wear  thick  woollen  dresses  and  under-flannels, 
and  keep  up  a  temperature  of  from  seventy 
to  eighty  degrees.  In  the  South  we  move  in 
a  much  lower  temperature,  and  have  only  the 
open  fire  upon  the  hearth.  It  is  therefore  im 
portant  to  go  warmly  clad,  and  particularly  to 
keep  on  flannels  until  the  warm  weather  of  April 
becomes  a  settled  thing. 

In   regard   to   the   healthfulness    of    Florida, 
some  things  are  to  be  borne   in    mind.     In  a 
State  that  has  the  reputation  of  being  an  inva 
lid's  asylum,  many  desperate  cases  necessarily 
take   refuge,   and,   of  course,   many  die.     Yet, 


1 32  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 


notwithstanding  the  loss  from  these  causes,  the 
census  of  1860  showed  that  the  number  of 
deaths  from  pulmonary  complaints  is  less  to  the 
population  than  in  any  State  of  the  Union.  In 
Massachusetts,  the  rate  is  one  in  two  hundred 
and  fifty-four  ;  in  California,  one  in  seven  hun 
dred  and  twenty-seven  ;  in  Florida,  one  in  four 
teen  hundred  and  forty-seven.  Surgeon-Gen. 
Lawson  of  the  United-States  army,  in  his  re 
port,  asserts  that  "  the  ratio  of  deaths  to  the 
number  of  cases  of  remittent  fevers  has  been 
much  less  among  the  troops  serving  in  Florida 
than  in  other  portions  of  the  United  States.  In 
the  middle  division,  the  proportion  is  one  death 
to  thirty-six  cases  of  fever ;  in  the  northern, 
one  to  fifty-two  ;  in  Texas,  one  to  seventy- 
eight  ;  in  California,  one  in  a  hundred  and 
twenty-two ;  while  in  Florida  it  is  one  in  two 
hundred  and  eighty-seven." 

Such  statistics  as  these  are  more  reliable  than 


"FLORIDA   FOR  INVALIDS."  133 

the  limited  observation  of  any  one  individual. 
In  regard  to  sudden  changes  of  climate,  Florida 
is  certainly  not  in  all  parts  ideally  perfect. 
There  are,  at  times,  great  and  sudden  changes 
there,  but  not  by  any  means  as  much  so  as  in 
most  other  States  of  the  Union. 

Sudden  changes  from  heat  to  cold  are  the  be 
setting  sin  of  this  fallen  world.  It  is  the  staple 
subject  for  grumbling  among  the  invalids  who 
visit  Italy  ;  and,  in  fact,  it  is  probably  one  of  the 
consequences  of  Adam's  fall,  which  we  are  not 
to  be  rid  of  till  we  get  to  the  land  of  pure  de 
light.  It  may,  however,  comfort  the  hearts  of 
visitors  to  Florida  to  know,  that,  if  the  climate 
here  is  not  in  this  respect  just  what  they  would 
have  it,  it  is  about  the  best  there  is  going. 

All  this  will  be  made  quite  clear  to  any  one 
who  will  study  the  tables  of  observations  on  tem 
perature  contained  in  "  The  Guide  to  Florida," 
where  they  can  see  an  accurate  account  of  the 


1 34  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

- 


range  of  the  thermometer  for  five  successive 
years  as  compared  with  that  in  other  States. 

One  thing  cannot  be  too  often  reiterated  to 
people  who  come  to  Florida  ;  and  that  is,  that 
they  must  not  expect  at  once  to  leave  behind 
them  all  sickness,  sorrow,  pain,  inconvenience 
of  any  kind,  and  to  enter  at  once  on  the  rest  of 
paradise. 

The  happiness,  after  all,  will  have  to  be  com 
parative  ;  and  the  inconveniences  are  to  be 
borne  by  reflecting  how  much  greater  inconven 
iences  are  avoided.  For  instance,  when  we 
have  a  three-days'  damp,  drizzling  rain-storm 
down  here,  we  must  reflect,  that,  at  the  North,  it 
is  a  driving  snow-storm.  When  it  is  brisk,  cold 
weather  here,  it  is  an  intolerable  freeze  there. 
The  shadow  and  reflection  of  all  important 
changes  at  the  North  travel  down  to  us  in  time. 
The  exceptionally  cold  winter  at  the  North  has 
put  our  season  here  back  a  month  behind  its 


"FLORIDA   FOR  INVALIDS."  135 

usual  spring-time.  The  storms  travel  down 
ward,  coming  to  us,  generally,  a  little  later,  and 
in  a  modified  form. 

We  cannot  better  illustrate  this  than  by  two 
experiences  this  year.  Easter  morning  we  were 
waked  by  bird-singing ;  and  it  was  a  most 
heavenly  morning.  We  walked  out  in  the  calm, 
dewy  freshness,  to  gather  flowers  to  dress  our 
house,  —  the  only  church  we  have  now  in  which 
to  hold  services.  In  the  low  swamp-land  near 
our  home  is  a  perfect  field  of  blue  iris,  whose 
bending  leaves  were  all  beaded  with  dew  ;  and 
we  walked  in  among  them,  admiring  the  won 
derful  vividness  of  their  coloring,  and  gathering 
the  choicest  to  fill  a  large  vase.  Then  we  cut 
verbenas,  white,  scarlet,  and  crimson,  rose-gera 
niums  and  myrtle,  callas  and  roses ;  while 
already  on  our  tables  were  vases  of  yellow  jes 
samine,  gathered  the  night  before.  The  blue  St. 
John's  lay  in  misty  bands  of  light  and  shade  in 


1 36  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

J  - 

the  distance ;  and  the  mocking-birds  and  red- 
birds  were  singing  a  loud  Te  Deum. 

Now  for  the  North.  A  friend  in  Hartford 
writes,  "  I  was  awaked  by  the  patter  of  snow 
and  sleet  on  the  window-pane.  Not  a  creature 
could  go  out  to  church,  the  storm  was  so 
severe :  even  the  Irish  were  obliged  to  keep 
housed.  With  all  we  could  do  with  a  furnace 
and  morning-glory  stove,  we  could  not  get  the 
temperature  of  our  house  above  fifty-five,  de- 
grees." 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  day,  we  at  Mandarin 
had  some  rough,  chilling  winds,  which  were  the 
remains  of  the  Northern  Easter  storm  ;  but  we 
were  wise  enough  to  rejoice  in  the  good  we  had, 
instead  of  fretting  at  the  shadow  of  evil. 


SWAMPS   AND   ORANGE-TREES, 

MARCH  25,  1872- 

ggSFTER  a  cold,  damp,  rainy  week,  we 
have  suddenly  had  dropped  upon  us 
a  balmy,  warm,  summer  day,  —  ther 
mometer  at  eighty  ;  and  every  thing  out  of  doors 
growing  so  fast,  that  you  may  see  and  hear  it 
grow. 

The  swampy  belt  of  land  in  front  of  the 
house  is  now  bursting  forth  in  clouds  of  blue 
iris  of  every  shade,  from  the  palest  and  faintest 

137 


138  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

• 

to  the  most  vivid  lapis-lazuli  tint.  The  wild- 
rose-bushes  there  are  covered  with  buds ;  and 
the  cypress-trees  are  lovely  with  their  vivid  lit 
tle  feathers  of  verdure.  This  swamp  is  one  of 
those  crooks  in  our  lot  which  occasions  a  never- 
ceasing  conflict  of  spirit.  It  is  a  glorious,  bewil 
dering  impropriety.  The  trees  and  shrubs  in  it 
grow  as  if  they  were  possessed  ;  and  there  is 
scarcely  a  month  in  the  year  that  it  does  not 
flame  forth  in  some  new  blossom.  It  is  a  per 
petual  flower-garden,  where  creepers  run  and 
tangle ;  where  Nature  has  raptures  and  frenzies 
of  growth,  and  conducts  herself  like  a  crazy, 
drunken,  but  beautiful  bacchante.  But  what  to 
do  with  it  is  not  clear.  The  river  rises  and 
falls  in  it ;  and  under  all  that  tangle  of  foliage 
lies  a  foul  sink  of  the  blackest  mud.  The 
black,  unsavory  moccasin-snakes  are  said  and 
believed  to  have  their  lair  in  those  jungles, 
where  foot  of  man  cares  not  to  tread.  Gi- 


SWAMPS  AND   ORANGE-TREES.       139 

gantic  bulrushes  grow  up ;  clumps  of  high 
water-grasses,  willows,  elms,  maples,  cypresses, 
Magnolia  glauca  (sweet-bay),  make  brave  show 
of  foliage.  Below,  the  blue  pickerel-weed,  the 
St.  John's  lily,  the  blue  iris,  wild-roses,  blossom 
ing 'tufts  of  elder,  together  with  strange  flowers 
of  names  unspoken,  make  a  goodly  fellowship. 
The  birds  herd  there  in  droves  ;  red-birds  glance 
like  gems  through  the  boughs ;  cat-birds  and 
sparrows  and  jays  babble  and  jargon  there  in 
the  green  labyrinths  made  by  the  tangling  vines. 
We  muse  over  it,  meanwhile  enjoying  the  visible 
coming-on  of  spring  in  its  foliage.  The  maples 
have  great  red  leaves,  curling  with  their  own 
rapid  growth  ;  the  elms  feather  out  into  graceful 
plumes  ;  and  the  cypress,  as  we  said  before, 
most  brilliant  of  all  spring  greens,  puts  forth  its 
fairy  foliage.  Verily  it  is  the  most  gorgeous  of 
improprieties,  this  swamp  ;  and  we  will  let  it 
alone  this  year  also,  and  see  what  will  come  of 


1 40  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

•i    iRf^ins- 

it.  There  are  suggestions  of  ditching  and 
draining,  and  what  not,  that  shall  ^convert  the 
wild  bacchante  into  a  steady,  orderly  member  of 
society.  We  shall  see. 

Spring  is  a  glory  anywhere  ;  but,  as  you 
approach  the  tropics,  there  is  a  vivid  brilliancy, 
a  burning  tone,  to  the  coloring,  that  is  peculiar. 
We  are  struck  with  the  beauty  of  the  cat-briers. 
We  believe  they  belong  to  the  smilax  family  ; 
and  the  kinds  that  prevail  here  are  evergreen, 
and  have  quaintly-marked  leaves.  Within  a  day 
or  two,  these  glossy,  black-green  vines  have 
thrown  out  trembling  red  sprays  shining  with 
newness,  with  long  tendrils  waving  in  the  air. 
The  vigor  of  a  red  young  shoot  that  seems  to 
spring  out  in  an  hour  has  something  delightful 
in  it. 

Yellow  jessamine,  alas  !  is  fading.  The 
ground  is  strewn  with  pale-yellow  trumpets,  as 
if  the  elves  had  had  a  concert  and  thrown  down 


SWAMPS  AND   ORANGE-TREES.       141 

their  instruments,  and  fled.  Now  the  vines 
throw  out  young  shoots  half  a  yard  long,  and 
infinite  in  number ;  and  jessamine  goes  on  to 
possess  and  clothe  new  regions,  which  next 
February  shall  be  yellow  with  flowers. 

Farewell  for  this  year,  sweet  Medea  of  the 
woods,  with  thy  golden  fleece  of  blossoms ! 
Why  couldst  thou  not  stay  with  us  through 
the  year  ?  Emerson  says  quaintly,  "  Seventy 
salads  measure  the  life  of  a  man."  The  things, 
whether  of  flower  or  fruit,  that  we  can  have  but 
once  a  year,  mark  off  our  lives.  A  lover  might 
thus  tell  the  age  of  his  lady-love  :  "  Seventeen 
times  had  the  jessamine  blossomed  since  she 
came  into  the  world."  The  time  of  the  bloom 
of  the  jessamine  is  about  two  months.  In  the 
middle  of  January,  when  we  came  down,  it  was 
barely  budded  :  the  25th  of  March,  and  it  is 
past. 

But,  not  to  give  all  our  time  to  flowers,  we 


142  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

must  now  fulfil  our  promise  to  answer  letters, 
and  give  practical  information. 

A  gentleman  propounds  to  us  the  following 
inquiry :  "  Apart  from  the  danger  from  frosts, 
what  is  the  prospect  of  certainty  in  the  orange- 
crop  ?  Is  it  a  steady  one  ? " 

We  have  made  diligent  inquiry  from  old,  expe 
rienced  cultivators,  and  from  those  who  have 
collected  the  traditions  of  orange-growing ;  and 
the  result  seems  to  be,  that,  apart  from  the 
danger  of  frost,  the  orange-crop  is  the  most 
steady  and  certain  of  any  known  fruit. 

In  regard  to  our  own  grove,  consisting  of  a 
hundred  and  fifteen  trees  on  an  acre  and  a  half 
of  ground,  we  find  that  there  has  been  an  aver 
age  crop  matured  of  sixty  thousand  a  year  for 
each  of  the  five  years  we  have  had  it.  Two 
years  the  crop  was  lost  through  sudden  frost 
coming  after  it  was  fully  perfected ;  but  these 
two  years  are  the  only  ones  since  1835 


SWAMPS  AND   ORANGE-TREES.       143 

when  a  crop  has  been  lost  or  damaged  through 
frost. 

Our  friend  inquires  with  regard  to  the  orange- 
insect.  This  was  an  epidemic  which  prevailed 
some  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago,  destroying  the 
orange-trees  as  the  canker-worms  did  the  apple- 
trees.  It  was  a  variety  of  the  scale-bug ;  but 
nothing  has  been  seen  of  it  in  an  epidemic  form 
for  many  years,  and  growers  now  have  no  appre 
hensions  from  this  source. 

The  wonderful  vital  and  productive  power  of 
the  orange-tree  would  not  be  marvelled  at  could 
one  examine  its  roots.  The  ground  all  through 
our  grove  is  a  dense  mat  or  sponge  of  fine 
yellow  roots,  which  appear  like  a  network  on  the 
least  displacing  of  the  sand.  Every  ramification 
has  its  feeder,  and  sucks  up  food  for  the  tree 
with  avidity.  The  consequence  is,  that  people 
who  have  an  orange-grove  must  be  contented 
with  that,  and  not  try  to  raise  flowers  ;  but,  nev- 


144  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

ertheless,  we  do  try,  because  we  can't  help  it. 
But  every  fertilizer  that  we  put  upon  our  roses 
and  flower-beds  is  immediately  rushed  after  by 
these  hungry  yellow  orange-roots.  At  the  root 
of  our  great  live-oak  we  wanted  a  little  pet  colony 
of  flowers,  and  had  muck  and  manure  placed 
there  to  prepare  for  them.  In  digging  there 
lately,  we  found  every  particle  of  muck  and 
manure  netted  round  with  the  fine,  embracing 
fibres  from  the  orange-tree  ten  feet  off.  The 
consequence  is,  that  our  roses  grow  slowly,  and 
our  flower-garden  is  not  a  success. 

Oleanders,  cape-jessamines,  pomegranates,  and 
crape-myrtles  manage,  however,  to  stand  their 
ground.  Any  strong,  woody-fibred  plant  does 
better  than  more  delicate  flowers  ;  as  people  who 
will  insist  upon  their  rights,  and  fight  for  them, 
do  best  in  the  great  scramble  of  life. 

But  what  a  bouquet  of  sweets  is  an  orange- 
tree  !  Merely  as  a  flowering-tree  it  is  worth 


SWAMPS  AND   ORANGE-TREES.       145 

having,  if  for  nothing  else.  We  call  the  time  of 
their  budding  the  week  of  pearls.  How  beauti 
ful,  how  almost  miraculous,  the  leaping-forth 
of  these  pearls  to  gem  the  green  leaves  !  The 
fragrance  has  a  stimulating  effect  on  our  nerves, 
—  a  sort  of  dreamy  intoxication.  The  air,  now, 
is  full  of  it.  Under  the  trees  the  white  shell- 
petals  drift,  bearing  perfume. 

But,  not  to  lose  our  way  in  poetic  raptures,  we 
return  to  statistics  drawn  from  a  recent  conver 
sation  with  our  practical  neighbor.  He  has 
three  trees  in  his  grounds,  which  this  year  have 
each  borne  five  thousand  oranges.  He  says  that 
he  has  never  failed  of  a  steady  crop  from  any 
cause,  except  in  the  first  of  the  two  years  named  ; 
and,  in  that  case,  it  is  to  be  remembered  the  fruit 
was  perfected,  and  only  lost  by  not  being  gath 
ered. 

He  stated  that  he  had  had  reports  from  two 
men  whom  he  named,  who  had  each  gathered 


146  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 


ten  thousand  from  a  single  tree.  He  appeared 
to  think  it  a  credible  story,  though  a  very 
remarkable  yield. 

The  orange  can  be  got  from  seed.  Our 
neighbor's  trees,  the  largest  and  finest  in 
Mandarin,  are  seedlings.  Like  ours,  they 
were  frozen  down  in  1835,  and  subsequently 
almost  destroyed  by  the  orange-insect ;  but 
now  they  are  stately,  majestic  trees  of  won 
derful  beauty.  The  orange  follows  the  quality 
of  the  seed,  and  needs  no  budding  ;  and  in  our 
region  this  mode  of  getting  the  trees  is  univer 
sally  preferred.  Fruit  may  be  expected  from  the 
seed  in  six  years,  when  high  cultivation  is  prac 
tised.  A  cultivator  in  our  neighborhood  saw  a 
dozen  trees,  with  an  average  of  three  hundred 
oranges  on  each,  at  seven  years  from  the  seed. 
Young  seedling  plants  of  three  years'  growth 
can  be  bought  in  the  nurseries  on  the  St.  John's 
River. 


SWAMPS  AND   ORANGE-TREES.       147. 

Our  young  folks  have  been  thrown  into  a  state 
of  great  excitement  this  afternoon  by  the  intro 
duction  among  them  of  two  live  alligators.  Our 

friend  Mr.  P went  for  them  to  the  lair  of 

the  old  alligator,  which  he  describes  as  a  hole  in 
the  bank,  where  the  eggs  are  laid.  Hundreds  of 
little  alligators  were  crawling  in  and  out,  the 
parents  letting  them  shift  for  themselves.  They 
feed  upon  small  fish.  Our  young  protege 
snapped  in  a  very  suggestive  manner  at  a  stick 
offered  to  him,  and  gave  an  energetic  squeak. 
We  pointed  out  to  the  children,  that,  if  it  were 
their  finger  or  toe  that  was  in  the  stick's  place, 
the  consequences  might  be  serious.  After  all, 
we  have  small  sympathy  with  capturing  these 
poor  monsters.  We  shall  have  some  nice  tales 
to  tell  of  them  anon.  Meanwhile  our  paper 
must  end  here. 


LETTER-WRITING. 

APRIL  14. 

UR  Palmetto  correspondence  increases 
daily.  Our  mail  comes  only  twice  a 
week ;  and,  as  the  result  of  the  two 
last  mails,  we  find  fifteen  letters,  propounding 
various  inquiries  about  Florida.  Now,  it  would 
be  a  most  delightful  thing  to  be  on  sociable 
terms  with  all  the  world  ;  and  we  would  be  glad 
to  reply  to  each  one  of  these  letters.  Many  of 

them  are  sprightly  and  amusing:    all  are  writ- 
148 


LETTER-WRITING.  149 

ten  in  good  faith,  containing  most  natural  and 
rational  inquiries.  But,  let  any  one  attempt  the 
task  of  writing  fifteen  letters  on  one  subject, 
and  he  will  soon  find  that  it  is  rather  more  than 
can  be  done  by  one  who  expects  to  do  any  thing 
else. 

Some  of  the  inquiries,  however,  we  may  as 
well  dispose  of  in  the  beginning  of  this  letter. 

And  first  as  to  the  little  boy  who  has  lost  his 
cat,  and  wishes  to  know  if  we  cannot  spare 
Peter  to  take  her  place.  Alas  !  we  have  a  tale 
of  sadness  to  unfold.  When  we  began  our 
"  Palmetto-Leaves,"  we  were  the  embarrassed 
possessor  of  four  thrifty  cats  :  now  every  one 
of  them  has  passed  to  the  land  of  shades,  and 
we  are  absolutely  catless.  Peter,  we  regret  to 
say,  was  killed  in  consequence  of  being  mis 
taken  for  a  rabbit,  one  moonlight  night,  by  an 
enterprising  young  sportsman  ;  Annie  was  un 
fortunately  drowned ;  and  'Cindy  fell  victim  to 


1 50  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

some  similar  hallucination  of  the  young  son-of-a- 
gun  who  destroyed  Peter.  In  short,  only  our 
old  family  mother-cat  remained  ;  but,  as  she  had 
a  fine  litter  of  kittens,  there  was  hope  that  the 
line  would  be  continued.  We  established  her 
sumptuously  in  a  box  in  the  back-shed  with  her 
nurslings  ;  but,  as  cruel  Fate  would  have  it,  a 
marauding  dog  came  smelling  about,  and  a  fight 
ensued,  in  which  Puss's  fore-leg  was  broken,  or, 
to  speak  quite  literally,  chewed  up. 

Wounded  and  bleeding,  but  plucky  to  the  last, 
she  drove  off  the  dog  with  a  "predestined 
scratched  face,"  and,  taking  up  her  kittens  one 
by  one  in  her  mouth,  traversed  a  long  veranda, 
jumped  through  a  window  into  the  bed-room  of 
one  of  her  mistresses,  and  deposited  her  nurs 
lings  under  the  bed. 

All  agreed  that  a  cat  of  such  spirit  and  gal 
lantry  had  shown  that  she  ought  to  vote  by  her 
ability  to  fight,  and  that  she  was  at  least  worthy 


LETTER-WRITING.  151 

of  distinguished  attention.  So  the  next  day 
the  whole  family  sat  in  council  on  the  case. 
Chloroform  was  administered  :  and,  while  Puss 
was  insensible,  a  promising  young  naturalist  set 
and  bandaged  the  limb  ;  but,  alas  !  without  avail. 
The  weather  was  hot ;  and  the  sufferings  of  the 
poof  creature  soon  became  such,  that  we  were 
thankful  that  we  had  the  power,  by  a  swift  and 
painless  death,  to  put  an  end  to  them.  So  a 
pistol-ball  sent  Puss  to  the  land  where  the  good 
cats  go  ;  and  the  motherless  kitties  found  peace 
under  the  blue  waters  of  the  St.  John's.  The 
water-nymphs,  undoubtedly,  "held  up  their 
pearled  wrists  and  took  them  in,"  and  doubtless 
made  blessed  pets  of  them.  So  that  is  the  end 
of  all  our  cats. 

Phoebus  rejoices  now ;  for  there  is  none  to 
molest  or  make  him  afraid.  His  songs  increase 
daily  in  variety.  He  pipes  and  whistles  ;  occa 
sionally  breaks  forth  into  a  litany  that  sounds 


152  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

^r^m^ 

like  "  Pray  do,  pray  do,  pray  do  ! "  then,  sud 
denly  changing  the  stop,  he  shouts,  "  De  deevil ! 
de  deevil !  de  deevil !  "  but,  as  he  is  otherwise  a 
bird  of  the  most  correct  habits,  it  cannot  be 
supposed  that  any  profanity  is  intended.  This 
morning  being  Sunday,  he  called  "  Beecher, 
Beecher,  Beecher ! "  very  volubly.  He  evi 
dently  is  a  progressive  bird,  and,  for  aught  we 
know,  may  yet  express  himself  on  some  of  the 
questions  of  the  day. 

The  next  letter  on  our  file  wants  to  know  the 
prices  of  board  at  Green-Cove  Springs,  Magno 
lia,  and  Hibernia.  The  prices  at  these  places 
vary  all  the  way  from  twelve  to  thirty-five  dollars 
per  week,  according  to  accommodations.  The 
higher  prices  are  in  larger  hotels,  and  the 
smaller  in  private  boarding-houses.  "  The  Flor 
ida  Guide  "  says  board  can  be  obtained  in  Jack 
sonville,  in  private  families,  at  from  eight  to  ten 
dollars  per  week. 


LETTER-WRITING.  153 

There  are  three  more  letters,  asking  questions 
about  the  culture  of  the  orange  ;  to  which  the 
writers  will  find  answers,  so  far  as  we  can  give 
them,  when  we  come  to  speak  of  the  orange- 
orchards  up  the  river. 

A  lady  writes  to  ask  if  we  know  any  way  of 
preserving  figs. 

Practically,  we  know  nothing  about  the  fig- 
harvest,  having  never  been  here  when  they  were 
ripe.  Our  friends  tell  us  that  they  are  not  suc 
cessful  in  preserving  them  in  cans.  They  make 
a  delicious  though  rather  luscious  preserve  done 
in  the  ordinary  way,  like  peaches.  But  we  will 
give  our  inquiring  friend  the  benefit  of  a  piece 
of  information  communicated  to  us  by  an  old 
native  Floridian,  who  professed  to  have  raised 
and  prepared  figs  as  fine  as  those  in  Turkey. 
His  receipt  was  as  follows  :  "  Prepare  a  lye  from 
the  ashes  of  the  grape-vine  ;  have  a  kettle  of 
this  kept  boiling  hot  over  the  fire ;  throw  in 


154  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

*••**<%• 

the  figs,  and  let  them  remain  two  minutes  ;  skim 
them  out  and  drain  them  on  a  sieve,  and  after 
wards  dry  in  the  sun."  Such  was  his  receipt, 
which  we  have  never  tried.  Probably  any  other 
strong  lye  would  answer  as  well  as  that  from  the 
grape-vine. 

As  to  those  who  have  asked  for  flowers  from 
Florida,  we  wish  it  were  in  our  power  to  grant 
their  requests  ;  but  these  frail  beauties  are  not 
transferable.  We  in  our  colony  have  taxed  the 
resources  of  our  postal  arrangements  to  carry  to 
our  friends  small  specimens,  but  with  no  very 
encouraging  results. 

We  have  just  been  making  the  grand  round, 
or  tour  up  the  St.  John's  to  Enterprise,  across  to 
St.  Augustine,  and  back ;  which  is  necessary  to 
constitute  one  an  accomplished  Floridian  sight 
seer  :  and  it ,  had  been  our  intention  to  de 
vote  this  letter  to  that  trip  ;  but  there  is  so 
much  to  say,  there  are  so  many  wonders 


LETTER-WRITING.  155 

and  marvels  to  be  described,  that  we  must 
give  it  a  letter  by  itself.  No  dreamland  on 
earth  can  be  more  unearthly  in  its  beauty  and 
glory  than  the  St.  John's  in  April.  Tourists,  for 
the  most  part,  see  it  only  in  winter,  when  half 
its  gorgeous  forests  stand  bare  of  leaves,  and 
go  home,  never  dreaming  what  it  would  be  like 
in  its  resurrection-robes.  So  do  we,  in  our  dark 
ness,  judge  the  shores  of  the  river  of  this  mortal 
life  up  which  we  sail,  ofttimes  disappointed  and 
complaining.  We  are  seeing  all  things  in 
winter,  and  not  as  they  will  be  when  God  shall 
wipe  away  all  tears,  and  bring  about  the  new 
heavens  and  new  earth,  of  which  every  spring 
is  a  symbol  and  a  prophecy.  The  flowers  and 
leaves  of  last  year  vanish  for  a  season  ;  but  they 
come  back  fresher  and  fairer  than  ever. 

This  bright  morning  we  looked  from  the  roof 
of  our  veranda,  and  our  neighbor's  oleander-trees 
were  glowing  like  a  great  crimson  cloud ;  and  we 


1 56  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

said,  "  There  !  the  oleanders  have  come  back  !  " 
No  Northern  ideas  can  give  the  glory  of  these 
trees  as  they  raise  their  heads  in  this  their  native 
land,  and  seem  to  be  covered  with  great  crimson 
roses.  The  poor  stunted  bushes  of  Northern 
greenhouses  are  as  much  like  it  as  our 
stunted  virtues  and  poor  frost-nipped  enjoy 
ments  shall  be  like  the  bloom  and  radiance  of 
God's  paradise  hereafter.  In  April  they  begin 
to  bloom  ;  and  they  bloom  on  till  November. 
Language  cannot  do  justice  to  the  radiance, 
the  brightness,  the  celestial  calm  and  glory, 
of  these  spring  days.  There  is  an  assur 
ance  of  perpetuity  in  them.  You  do  not  say,  as 
at  the  North,  that  a  fine  day  is  a  "  weather- 
breeder,"  and  expect  a  week  of  storms  to  pay 
for  it.  Day  after  day  passes  in  brightness. 
Morning  after  morning,  you  wake  to  see  the  same 
sunshine  gilding  the  tops  of  the  orange-trees,  and 
hear  the  same  concert  of  birds.  All  the  forest- 


LETTER-WRITING.  157 

trees  stand  in  perfected  glory  ;  and  the  leaves 
have  sprung  forth  with  such  rapidity  and  elastic 
vigor  as  gives  the  foliage  a  wondrous  brightness. 
The  black-jack  oaks —  trees  which,  for  some  rea 
son  or  other,  are  apt  to, be  spoken  of  as  of  small 
account  —  have  now  put  forth  their  large,  sharply- 
cut,  oak-shaped  leaves.  We  say  this  because  it 
is  the  only  one  of  the  oak  species  here  that  at 
all  resembles  the  oaks  we  have  been  accustomed 
to  see.  The  pawpaw-bushes  are  all  burst  out  in 
white  fringes  of  blossom  ;  and  the  silver  bells  of 
the  sparkle-berry  are  now  in  their  perfection. 
Under  foot,  a  whole  tribe  of  new  flowers  have 
come  in  place  of  the  departed  violets.  The 
partridge-berry  or  squaw-berry  of  the  North 
grows  in  the  woods  in  dense  mats,  and .  is  now 
white  with  its  little  starry  blossoms.  Certain 
nameless  little  golden  balls  of  flowers  twinkle  in 
the  grass  and  leaves  like  small  constellations. 
We  call  them,  for  lack  of  botanic  language, 


158  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

"  sun-kisses."  Our  party,  the  other  night,  made 
an  expedition  to  the  "second  branch,"  and 
brought  home  long  vines  of  purple  wisteria,  red 
trumpet-creeper,  and  some  sprays  of  white  blos 
soms  unknown  to  us :  so  that  our  house  still  is 
a  flower-show.  Spring  is  as  much  a  pomp  and  a 
glory  here  as  in  Northern  States  ;  for  although  the 
winter  is  far  more  endurable,  and  preserves  far 
more  beauty,  yet  the  outburst  of  vividness  and 
vigor  when  the  sun  begins  to  wax  powerful  is 
even  greater  and  more  marked  than  at  the  North. 
The  roses  are  now  in  perfection.  Ours  have 
not  thriven  as  they  might  have  done  were  it  not 
for  the  all-devouring  orange-trees  ;  but  still  they 
give  us  every  morning,  with  our  breakfast,  a 
comforting  assortment.  La  Marque,  Giant  of 
Battles,  Hermosa,  a  little  cluster  rose,  and  a 
dozen  more,  have  brightened  our  repast.  This 
is  the  land  to  raise  roses,  however ;  and  we  mean 
yet  to  have  a  rose-garden  at  a  safe  distance  from 


LE  TTER-  WRITING.  1 5  9 

any  orange-trees,  and  see  what  will  come  of  it. 
Here  are  no  slugs  or  rose-bugs  or  caterpillars 
to  make  rose-culture  a  burden  and  a  vexation. 
Finally,  as  we  have  had  so  many  letters  asking 
information  of  us,  we  wish  somebody  who  is 
wise  enough  would  write  one,  and  give  us  some 
on  a  certain  point.  One  of  our  orange-trees  has 
become  an  invalid.  The  case  may  be  stated  as 
follows  :  Early  in  the  season,  Mr.  R,  in  looking 
over  the  grove,  found  this  tree,  then  loaded  with 
fruit,  dropping  its  leaves  ;  the  leaves  curling,  or,  as 
they  say  here,  "  rolling,"  as  is  the  fashion  of  or 
ange-trees  when  suffering  from  drought.  Imme 
diately  he  took  all  the  fruit  from  the  tree,  pruned 
it,  dug  about  the  roots,  and  examined  them  to  find 
something  to  account  for  this.  For  a  while,  by 
careful  tending,  the  tree  seemed  to  be  coming 
to  itself;  but,  when  the  blossoming-time  came 
round,  half  its  leaves  fell,  and  it  burst  into  blos 
soms  on  every  spray  and  twig  in  the  most  pre- 


160  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 


ternatural  manner.  It  reminded  us  of  some  poor 
dear  women,  who,  when  they  lose  their  health, 
seem  resolved  to  kill  themselves  in  abundant  good 
works.  It  was  really  blossoming  to  death. 
Now,  we  ask  any  wise  fruit-growers,  What  is  this 
disease  ?  and  how  is  it  to  be  treated  ?  We  have 
treated  it  by  cutting  off  all  the  blossoms,  cutting 
back  the  branches,  watering  with  water  in  which 
guano  and  lime  have  been  dissolved  ;  and  the 
patient  looks  a  little  better.  A  negro  workman 
testified  that  a  tree  in  a  similar  state  had  been 
brought  back  by  these  means.  Can  any  fruit 
grower  give  any  light  on  this  subject  ? 


MAGNOLIA  WEEK. 


APRIL  20. 


|T  is  vain  to  propose  and  announce 
subjects  from  week  to  week.  One 
must  write  what  one  is  thinking  of. 
When  the  mind  is  full  of  one  thing,  why  go 
about  to  write  on  another  ? 

The  past  week  we  have  been  engrossed  by 

magnolias.      On     Monday,    our    friend    D , 

armed   and   equipped  with   scaling-ladders,    as 
cended  the  glistening  battlements  of  the  great 

ii  161 


162  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

forest  palaces  fronting  his  cottage,  and  bore 
thence  the  white  princesses,  just  bursting  into 
bud,  and  brought  them  down  to  us.  Forthwith 
all  else  was  given  up :  for  who  would  take  the 
portrait  of  the  white  lady  must  hurry ;  for,  like 
many  queens  of  earth,  there  is  but  a  step  be 
tween  perfected  beauty  and  decay,  —  a  moment 
between  beauty  and  ashes. 

We  bore  them  to  our  chamber,  and  before 
morning  the  whole  room  was  filled  with  the  in 
toxicating,  dreamy  fragrance  ;  and  lo  !  while  we 
slept,  the  pearly  hinges  had  revolved  noiselessly, 
and  the  bud  that  we  left  the  evening  before  had 
become  a  great  and  glorious  flower.  To  de 
scend  to  particulars,  imagine  a  thick,  waxen- 
cupped  peony  of  the  largest  size,  just  revealing 
in  its  centre  an  orange-colored  cone  of  the  size 
of  a  walnut.  Around  it,  like  a  circlet  of  emer 
alds,  were  the  new  green  leaves,  contrasting  in 
their  vivid  freshness  with  the  solid,  dark-green 


MAGNOLIA    WEEK.  163 

brilliancy  of  the  old  foliage.  The  leaves  of  the 
magnolia  are  in  themselves  beauty  enough  with 
out  the  flower.  We  used  to  gather  them  in  a 
sort  of  rapture  before  we  ever  saw  the  blossom  ; 
but  all  we  can  say  of  the  flower  is,  that  it  is 
worthy  of  them. 

We  sat  down  before  this  queen  of  flowers,  and 
worked  assiduously  at  her  portrait.  We  had, 
besides  the  full  blossom,  one  bud  of  the  size  and 
shape  of  a  large  egg,  which  we  despaired  of  see 
ing  opened,  but  proposed  to  paint  as  it  was.  The 
second  morning,  our  green  egg  began  to  turn 
forth  a  silver  lining  ;  and,  as  we  worked,  we  could 
see  it  slowly  opening  before  us.  Silvery  and 
pearly  were  the  pure  tips ;  while  the  outside  was 
of  a  creamy  yellow  melting  into  green.  Two 
days  we  kept  faithful  watch  and  ward  at  the 
shrine  ;  but,  lo  !  on  the  morning  of  the  third  our 
beautiful  fairy  had  changed  in  the  night  to  an 
ugly  brownie.  The  petals,  so  waxen  fair  the 


164  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

»:;«:**H£. 

night  before,  had  become  of  a  mahogany  color ; 
and  a  breeze  passing  by  swept  them  dishonored 
in  showers  on  the  floor.  The  history  of  that 
magnolia  was  finished.  We  had  seen  it  unfold 
and  die.  Our  pearly  bud,  however,  went  on 
waxing  and  opening  till  its  day  came  for  full 
perfection. 

The  third  day,  our  friend  again  brought  in  a 
glorious  bouquet.  No  ordinary  flower-vase 
would  hold  it.  It  required  a  heavy  stone  jar, 
and  a  gallon  of  water  ;  but  we  filled  the  recess 
of  our  old-fashioned  Franklin  stove  with  the 
beauties,  and  the  whole  house  was  scented  with 
their  perfume. 

Then  we  thought  of  the  great  lonely  swamps 
and  everglades  where  thousands  of  these  beau 
ties  are  now  bursting  into  flower  with  no  earthly 
eye  to  behold  them. 

The  old  German  legends  of  female  spirits  in 
habiting  trees  recurred  to  us.  Our  magnolia 


MAGNOLIA    WEEK.  165 

would  make  a  beautiful  Libussa.  A  flower  is 
commonly  thought  the  emblem  of  a  woman  ;  and 
a  woman  is  generally  thought  of  as  something 
sweet,  clinging,  tender,  and  perishable.  But 
there  are  women  flowers  that  correspond  to  the 
forest  magnolia,  —  high  and  strong,  with  a  great 
hold  of  root  and  a  great  spread  of  branches  ;  and 
whose  pulsations  of  heart  and  emotion  come 
forth  like  these  silver  lilies  that  illuminate  the 
green  shadows  of  the  magnolia-forests. 

Yesterday,  our  friend  the  Rev.  Mr.  M 

called  and  invited  us  to  go  with  him  to  visit  his 
place,  situated  at  the  mouth  of  Julington,  just 
where  it  flows  into  the  St.  John's.  Our  obliging 
neighbor  immediately  proposed  to  take  the 
whole  party  in  his  sailing-yacht. 

An  impromptu  picnic  was  proclaimed  through 
the  house.  Every  one  dropped  the  work  in 
hand,  and  flew  to  spreading  sandwiches. 
Oranges  were  gathered,  luncheon -baskets 


166  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

packed ;  and  the  train  filed  out  from  the  two 
houses.  The  breeze  was  fresh  and  fair;  and 
away  we  flew.  Here,  on  the  St.  John's,  a  water- 
coach  is  more  to  the  purpose,  in  the  present 
state  of  our  wood-roads,  than  any  land-carriage  ; 
and  the  delight  of  sailing  is  something  infi 
nitely  above  any  other  locomotion.  On  this 
great,  beautiful  river  you  go  drifting  like  a 
feather  or  a  cloud  ;  while  the  green,  fragrant 
shores  form  a  constantly-varying  picture  as  you 
pass.  Yesterday,  as  we  were  sailing,  we  met  a 
little  green,  floating  island,  which  seemed  to 
have  started  out  on  its  own  account,  and  gone  to 
seek  its  fortune.  We  saw  it  at  first  in  the  dis 
tance,  —  a  small,  undulating  spot  of  vivid  green. 
Our  little  craft  was  steered  right  alongside,  so 
that  we  could  minutely  observe.  It  was  some 
half-dozen  square  yards  of  pickerel-weed,  bonnet 
water-lettuce,  and  other  water-plants,  which,  it 
would  seem,  had  concluded  to  colonize,  and  go 


MAGNOLIA    WEEK.  1 67 

out  to  see  the  world  in  company.  We  watched 
them  as  they  went  nodding  and  tilting  off  over 
the  blue  waters,  and  wondered  where  they  would 
bring  up. 

But  now  we  are  at  the  mouth  of  Julington, 
and  running  across  to  a  point  of  land  on  the 
other  side.  Our  boat  comes  to  anchor  under  a 
grove  of  magnolia-trees  which  lean  over  the 
water.  They  are  not  yet  fully  in  blossom.  One 
lily-white  bud  and  one  full-blown  flower  appear 
on  a  low  branch  overhanging  the  river,  and  are 
marked  to  be  gathered  when  we  return.  We 
go  up,  and  begin  strolling  along  the  shore.  The 
magnolia-grove  extends  along  the  edge  of  the 
water  for  half  a  mile.  Very  few  flowers  are  yet 
developed ;  but  the  trees  themselves,  in  the  vivid 
contrast  of  the  new  leaves  with  the  old,  are 
beauty  enough.  Out  of  the  centre  of  the  spike 
of  last  year's  solemn  green  comes  the  most 
vivid,  varnished  cluster  of  fresh  young  leaves, 


1 68  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

.  -«**m 

and  from  the  centre  of  this  brilliant  cluster 
comes  the  flower-bud.  The  magnolia,  being  an 
evergreen,  obeys  in  its  mode  of  growth  the  law 
which  governs  all  evergreens.  When  the  new 
shoots  come  out,  the  back-leaves  fall  off.  This 
produces  in  the  magnolia  a  wonderfully-beauti 
ful  effect  of  color.  As  we  looked  up  in  the 
grove,  each  spike  had,  first,  the  young  green 
leaves  ;  below  those,  the  dark,  heavy  ones  ;  and 
below  those  still,  the  decaying  ones,  preparing  to 
fall.  These  change  with  all  the  rich  colors  of 
decaying  leaves.  Some  are  of  a  pure,  brilliant 
yellow  ;  others  yellow,  mottled  and  spotted  with 
green  ;  others  take  a  tawny  orange,  and  again  a 
faded  brown. 

The  afternoon  sun,  shining  through  this  grove, 
gave  all  these  effects  of  color  in  full  brightness. 
The  trees,  as  yet,  had  but  here  and  there  a  blos 
som.  Each  shoot  had  its  bud,  for  the  most  part 
no  larger  than  a  walnut.  The  most  advanced 


MAGNOLIA    WEEK.  169 

were  of  the  size  of  an  egg,  of  white  tinted  with 
green.  Beneath  the  trees  the  ground  was 
thickly  strewn  with  the  golden  brown  and 
mottled  leaves,  which  were  ever  and  anon  sail 
ing  down  as  the  wind  swayed  them. 

Numbers  of  little  seedling  magnolias  were 
springing  up  everywhere  about  us  ;  and  we  easily 
pulled  up  from  the  loose  yielding  soil  quite  a 
number  of  them,  wrapping  their  roots  in  the 
gray  moss  which  always  lies  at  hand  for  packing- 
purposes. 

The  place  had  many  native  wild  orange-trees, 
which  had  been  cut  off  and  budded  with  the 
sweet  orange,  and  were  making  vigorous 
growth.  Under  the  shade  of  the  high  live-oaks 

Mr.  M had  set  out  young  orange  and 

lemon  trees  through  quite  an  extent  of  the 
forest.  He  told  us  that  he  had  two  thousand 
plants  thus  growing.  It  is  becoming  a  favorite 
idea  with  fruit-planters  here,  that  the  tropical 


1 70  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

'•  i?*?*- 

fruits  are  less  likely  to  be  injured  by  frosts,  and 
make  a  more  rapid  and  sure  growth,  under  the 
protecting  shadow  of  live-oaks.  The  wild  or 
ange  is  found  frequently  growing  in  this  way ; 
and  they  take  counsel  of  Nature  in  this  respect. 

After  wandering  a  while  in  the  wood,  we  pic 
nicked  under  a  spreading  live-oak,  with  the 
breeze  from  the  river  drawing  gratefully  across 
us. 

Our  dinner  over,  Mr.  M took  us  through 

his  plantations  of  grapes,  peaches,  and  all  other 
good  things.  Black  Hamburg  grapes  grafted 
upon  the  root  of  the  native  vine  had  made  luxu 
riant  growth,  and  were  setting  full  of  grapes. 
There  were  shoots  of  this  year's  growth  full  six 
and  seven  feet  in  length.  In  the  peach-orchard 
were  trees  covered  with  young  peaches,  which 

Mr.  M told  us  were  only  three  years  from 

the  seed.  All  the  garden  vegetables  were  there 
in  fine  order ;  and  the  string-beans  appeared  to 
be  in  full  maturity. 


MAGNOLIA    WEEK.  I /I 

It  is  now  five  years  since  Mr.  M bought 

and  began  to  clear  this  place,  then  a  dense  for 
est.  At  first,  the  letting-in  of  the  sun  on  the 
decaying  vegetation,  and  the  upturning  of  the 
soil,  made  the  place  unhealthy  ;  and  it  was  found 
necessary  to  remove  the  family.  Now  the  work 
is  done,  the  place  cleared,  and,  he  says,  as 
healthy  as  any  other. 

Mr.  M is  an  enthusiastic  horticulturist 

and  florist,  and  is  about  to  enrich  the  place  with 
a  rose-garden  of  some  thousands  of  choice 
varieties.  These  places  in  Florida  must  not  in 
any  wise  be  compared  with  the  finished  ones  of 
Northern  States.  They  are  spots  torn  out  of 
the  very  heart  of  the  forest,  and  where  Nature  is 
rebelling  daily,  and  rushing  with  all  her  might 
back  again  into  the  wild  freedom  from  which  she 
has  been  a  moment  led  captive. 

But  a  day  is  coming  when  they  will  be  won 
derfully  beautiful  and  productive. 


1 72  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

ir*^|^ 

We  had  one  adventure  in  conquering  and 
killing  a  formidable-looking  black-snake  about 
seven  feet  in  length.  He  had  no  fangs,  and,  Mr. 

M told  us,  belonged  to  a  perfectly  respectable 

and  harmless  family,  whose  only  vice  is  chicken- 
stealing.  They  are  called  chicken-snakes,  in 
consequence  of  the  partiality  they  show  for 
young  chickens,  which  they  swallow,  feathers 
and  all,  with  good  digestion  and  relish.  He  in 
formed  us  that  they  were  vigorous  ratters,  and 
better  than  either  terrier  or  cat  for  keeping 
barns  clear  of  rats  ;  and  that  for  this  purpose 
they  were  often  cherished  in  granaries,  as  they 
will  follow  the  rats  to  retreats  where  cats  cannot 
go.  Imagine  the  feelings  of  a  rat  when  this 
dreadful  visitor  comes  like  grim  death  into  his 
family-circle  ! 

In  regard  to  snakes  in  general,  the  chance  of 
meeting  hurtful  ones  in  Florida  is  much  less 
than  in  many  other  States.  Mr.  M ,  who  in 


MAGNOLIA    WEEK.  173 

the  way  of  his  mission  has  ridden  all  through 
Florida,  never  yet  met  a  rattlesnake,  or  was 
endangered  by  any  venomous  serpent.  Perhaps 
the  yearly  burnings  of  the  grass  which  have 
been  practised  so  long  in  Florida  have  had 
some  effect  in  checking  the  increase  of  serpents 
by  destroying  their  eggs. 

As  the  afternoon  sun  waxed  low  we  sought 
our  yacht  again,  and  came  back  with  two  mag 
nolia-flowers  and  several  buds. 

This  week,  too,  the  woods  are  full  of  the 
blossoms  of  the  passion-flower. 

Our  neighbor  Mr.  C has  bought  the  beauti 
ful  oak-ham  mock,  where  he  is  preparing  to  build  a 
house.  Walking  over  to  see  the  spot  the  other 
evening,  we  found  a  jungle  of  passion-flowers 
netted  around  on  the  ground,  and  clinging  to 
bush  and  tree.  Another  neighbor  also  brought 
us  in  some  branches  of  a  flowering-shrub  called 
the  Indian  pipe,  which  eclipses  the  sparkle- 


1/4  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

berry.  Like  that,  it  seems  to  be  a  glorified 
variety  of  high  huckleberry  or  blueberry.  It 
has  the  greatest  profusion  of  waxen  white  bells 
fringing  every  twig ;  and,  blase  as  we  have  been 
with  floral  displays,  we  had  a  new  sensation 
when  it  was  brought  into  the  house. 

Thus  goes  the  floral  procession  in  April  in 
the  wild-woods.  In  the  gardens,  the  oleanders, 
pink,  white,  and  deep  crimson,  are  beginning 
their  long  season  of  bloom.  The  scarlet  pome 
granate,  with  its  vivid  sparks  of  color,  shines 
through  the  leaves. 

We  are  sorry  for  all  those  who  write  to  beg 
that  we  will  send  by  mail  a  specimen  of  this  or 
that  flower.  Our  experience  has  shown  us  that 
in  that  way  they  are  not  transferable.  Magnolia- 
buds  would  arrive  dark  and  dreadful ;  and  it  is 
far  better  to  view  the  flowers  ever  fresh  and 
blooming,  through  imagination,  than  to  receive 
a  desolate,  faded,  crumpled  remnant  by  mail. 


BUYING  LAND  IN  FLORIDA. 


MAY  2. 


[E  have  before  us  a  neat  little  pile  of 
what  we  call "  Palmetto  letters,"  —  re 
sponses  to  our  papers  from  all  States 
in  the  Union.  Our  knowledge  of  geography 
has  really  been  quite  brightened  by  the  effort  to 
find  out  where  all  our  correspondents  are  liv 
ing.  Nothing  could  more  mark  the  exceptional 
severity  of  the  recent  winter  than  the  bursts  of 
enthusiasm  with  which  the  tidings  of  flowers 

175 


1 76  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

and  open-air  freedom  in  Florida  have  come  to 
those  struggling  through  snow-drifts  and  hail 
storms  in  the  more  ungenial  parts  of  our  Union. 
Florida  seems  to  have  risen  before  their  vision 
as  the  hymn  sings  of  better  shores ;  — 

"  On  Jordan's  stormy  banks  I  stand, 

And  cast  a  wistful  eye 
To  Canaan's  fair  and  happy  land." 

Consequently,  the  letters  of  inquiry  have 
come  in  showers.  What  is  the  price  of  land  ? 
Where  shall  we  go  ?  How  shall  we  get  there  ? 
&c. 

We  have  before  advertised  you,  O  beloved 
unknown  !  who  write,  that  your  letters  are  wel 
come,  ofttimes  cheering,  amusing,  and  undenia 
bly  nice  letters  ;  yet  we  cannot  pledge  ourselves 
to  answer,  except  in  the  gross,  and  through  "  The 
Christian  Union."  The  last  inquiry  is  from 
three  brothers,  who  want  to  settle  and  have 


BUYING  LAND  IN  FLORIDA.          177 

homes  together  at  the  South.  They  ask,  "Is 
there  government  land  that  can  be  had  in  Flor 
ida  ? "  ,  Yes,  there  is  a  plenty  of  it ;  yet,  as 
Florida  is  the  oldest  settled  State  in  the  Union, 
and  has  always  been  a  sort  of  bone  for  which 
adventurers  have  wrangled,  the  best  land  in  it 
has  been  probably  taken  up.  We  do  not  pro 
fess  to  be  land-agents  ;  and  we  speak  only  for 
the  tract  of  land  lying  on  the  St.  John's  River, 
between  Mandarin  and  Jacksonville,  when  we 
say  that  there  are  thousands  of  acres  of  good 
land,  near  to  a  market,  near  to  a  great  river  on 
which  three  or  four  steamboats  are  daily  plying, 
that  can  be  had  for  five  dollars  per  acre,  and  for 
even  less  than  that.  Fine,  handsome  building- 
lots  in  the  neighborhood  of  Jacksonville  are 
rising  in  value,  commanding  much  higher  prices 
than  the  mere  productive  value  of  the  land.  In 
other  words,  men  pay  for  advantages,  for  soci 
ety,  for  facilities  afforded  by  settlements. 


1/8  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

«-x^%. 

Now,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are  seri 
ously  thinking  of  coming  to  Florida,  we  have 
taken  some  pains  to  get  the  practical  experience 
of  men  who  are  now  working  the  land,  as  to 
what  it  will  do.  On  the  2d  of  May,  we 
accepted  the  invitation  of  Col.  Hardee  to  visit 
his  pioneer  nursery,  now  in  the  fourth  year  of 
its  existence.  Mr.  Hardee  is  an  enthusiast  in 
his  business  ;  and  it  is  a  department  where  we 
are  delighted  to  see  enthusiasm.  The  close  of 
the  war  found  him,  as  he  said,  miserably  poor. 
But,  brave  and  undiscouraged,  he  retained  his 
former  slaves  as  free  laborers  ;  took  a  tract  of 
land  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  Jacksonville  ; 
put  up  a  house  ;  cleared,  planted,  ploughed,  and 
digged  :  and,  in  the  course  of  four  years,  results 
are  beginning  to  tell  handsomely,  as  they  always 
do  for  energy  and  industry.  He  showed  us 
through  his  grounds,  where  every  thing  was 
growing  at  the  rate  things  do  grow  here  in  the 


BUYING  LAND  IN  FLORIDA.  179 

month  of  May.  Two  things  Mr.  Hardee  seems 
to  have  demonstrated :  *  first,  that  strawberry- 
culture  may  be  a  success  in  Florida ;  and, 
second,  that  certain  varieties  of  Northern  apples 
and  pears  may  be  raised  here.  We  arrived  in 
Florida  in  the  middle  of  January ;  and  one  of 
the  party  who  spent  a  night  at  the  St.  James 
was  surprised  by  seeing  a  peck  of  fresh,  ripe 
strawberries  brought  in.  They  were  from  Mr. 
Hardee's  nursery,  and  grown  in  the  open  air ; 
and  he  informed  us  that  they  had,  during  all  the 
winter,  a  daily  supply  of  the  fruit,  sufficient  for  a 
large  family,  and  a  considerable  overplus  for  the 
market.  The  month  of  May,  however,  is  the 
height  of  the  season ;  and  they  were  picking, 
they  informed  us,  at  the  rate  of  eighty  quarts 
per  day. 

In  regard  to  apples  and  pears,  Mr.  Hartfee's 
method  is  to  graft  them  upon  the  native  haw 
thorn  ;  and  the  results  are  really  quite  wonder- 


1 80  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

;.;<l^ 

ful.  Mr.  Hardee  was  so  complaisant  as  to  cut 
and  present  to  us  a  handsome  cluster  of  red 
Astrachan  apples  about  the  size  of  large  hickory- 
nuts,  the  result  of  the  second  year  from  the  graft. 
Several  varieties  of  pears  had  made  a  truly 
astonishing  growth,  and  promise  to  fruit,  in  time, 
abundantly.  A  large  peach-orchard  presented 
a  show  of  peaches,  some  of  the  size  of  a  butter 
nut,  and  some  of  a  walnut.  Concerning  one 
which  he  called  the  Japan  peach,  he  had  san 
guine  hope  of  ripe  fruit  in  ten  days.  We  were 
not  absolute  in  the  faith  as  to  the  exact  date, 
but  believe  that  there  will  undoubtedly  be  ripe 
peaches  there  before  the  month  of  May  is  out. 
Mr.  Hardee  is  particularly  in  favor  of  cultivating 
fruit  in  partially-shaded  ground.  Most  of  these 
growths  we  speak  of  were  under  the  shade  of 
large  live-oaks  ;  but  when  he  took  us  into  the 
wild  forest,  and  showed  us  peach,  orange,  and 
lemon  trees  set  to  struggle  for  existence  on  the 


BUYING  LAND  IN  FLORIDA.  l8l 

same  footing,  and  with  only  the  same  advantages, 
as  the  wild  denizens  of  the  forest,  we  rather 
demurred.  Was  not  this  pushing  theory  to  ex 
tremes  ?  Time  will  .show. 

Col.  Hardee  has  two  or  three  native  seedling 
peaches  grown  in  Florida,  of  which  he  speaks 
highly,  —  Mrs.  Thompson's  Golden  Free,  which 
commences  ripening  in  June,  and  continues  till 
the  first  of  August ;  the  "  Cracker  Cart,"  very 
large,  weighing  sometimes  thirteen  ounces  ;  the 
Cling  Yellow ;  and  the  Japan,  very  small  and 
sweet,  ripening  in  May. 

Besides  these,  Mr.  Hardee  has  experimented 
largely  in  vines,  in  which  he  gives  preference  to 
the  Isabella,  Hartford  Prolific,  and  Concord. 

He  is  also  giving  attention  to  roses  and  orna 
mental  shrubbery.  What  makes  the  inception 
of  such  nurseries  as  Mr.  Hardee's  a  matter  of 
congratulation  is  that  they  furnish  to  purchasers 
things  that  have  been  proved  suited  to  the 


1 82  'PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

*.,-  4'«(te 

climate  and  soil  of  Florida.  Peach-trees,  roses, 
and  grapes,  sent  from  the  North,  bring  here  the 
habit  of  their  Northern  growth,  which  often 
makes  them  worthless.  With  a  singular  stub 
bornness,  they  adhere  to  the  times  and  seasons 
to  which  they  have  been  accustomed  farther 
North.  We  set  a  peach-orchard  of  some  four 
hundred  trees  which  we  obtained  from  a  nursery 
in  Georgia.  We  suspect  now,  that,  having  a 
press  of  orders,  our  nurseryman  simply  sent  us 
a  packet  of  trees  from  some  Northern  nursery. 
The  consequence  is,  that  year  after  year,  when 
all  nature  about  them  is  bursting  into  leaf  and 
blossom,  when  peaches  of  good  size  gem  the 
boughs  of  Florida  trees,  our  peach-orchard 
stands  sullen  and  leafless ;  nor  will  it  start  bud  or 
blossom  till  the  time  for  peaches  to  start  in  New 
York.  The  same  has  been  our  trouble  with 
some  fine  varieties  of  roses  which  we  took 
from  our  Northern  grounds.  As  yet,  they  are 


BUYING  LAND  IN  FLORIDA.  183 

* 

hardly  worth  the  ground  they  occupy ;  and 
whether  they  ever  will  do  any 'thing  is  a  matter 
of  doubt.  Meanwhile  we  have  only  to  ride  a 
little  way  into  the  pine-woods  to  see  around 
many  a  rustic  cabin  a  perfect  blaze  of  crimson 
roses  and  cluster  roses,  foaming  over  the  fences 
in  cascades  of  flowers.  These  are  Florida  roses, 
born  and  bred ;  and  this  is  the  way  they  do  with 
not  one  tithe  of  the  work  and  care  that  we  have 
expended  on  our  poor  Northern  exiles.  Mr. 
Hardee,  therefore,  in  attempting  the  pioneer 
nursery  of  Florida,  is  doing  a  good  thing  for 
every  new-comer ;  and  we  wish  him  all  success. 
As  a  parting  present,  we  received  a  fine  summer 
squash,  which,  for  the  first  of  May,  one  must 
admit  is  good  growth.  And  now,  for  the  benefit 
of  those  who  may  want  to  take  up  land  in 
Florida,  we  shall  give  the  experience  of  some 
friends  and  neighbors  of  ours  who  have  carried 


184  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

through  about  as  thorough  and  well-conducted 
an  experiment  as  any  ;  and  we  give  it  from  mem 
oranda  which  they  have  kindly  furnished,  in  the 
hope  of  being  of  use  to  other  settlers. 


OUR    EXPERIENCE  IN    CROPS. 

FEW  years  ago,  three  brothers,  farm 
ers,  from  Vermont,  exhausted  by  the 
long,  hard  winters  there,  came  to 
Florida  to  try  an  experiment.  They  bought  two 
hundred  and  seventy-five  acres  in  the  vicinity  of 
Mandarin  at  one  dollar  per  acre.  It  was  pine^ 
land,  that  had  been  cut  over  twice  for  timber, 
and  was  now  considered  of  no  further  value  by 
its  possessor,  who  threw  it  into  the  hands  of  a 

185 


1 86  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

V.?""1**.- 

land-agent  to  make  what  he  could  of  it.  It  was 
the  very  cheapest  kind  of  Florida  land. 

Of  this  land  they  cleared  only  thirty-five 
acres.  -  The  fencing  cost  two  hundred  dollars. 
They  put  up  a  large,  unplastered,  two-story 
house,  with  piazzas  to  both  floors,  at  a  cost  of 
about  a  thousand  dollars.  The  additional  outlay 
was  on  two  mules  and  a  pair  of  oxen,  estimated 
at  four  hundred  dollars.  The  last  year,  they  put 
up  a  sugar-mill  and  establishment  at  a  cost  of 
five  hundred  dollars. 

An  orange-grove,  a  vineyard,  and  a  peach- 
orchard,  are  all  included  in  the  programme  of 
these  operators,  and  are  all  well  under  way.  But 
these  are  later  results.  It  is  not  safe  to  calcu 
late  on  an  orange-grove  under  ten  years,  or  on  a 
vineyard  or  peach-orchard  under  four  or  five. 

We  have  permission  to  copy  verbatim  certain 
memoranda  of  results  with  which  they  have 
furnished  us. 


OUR   EXPERIENCE  IN  CROPS.        l8/ 
CABBAGES. 

First  Year.  —  Sowed  seed  in  light  sandy  soil 
without  manure.  Weak  plants,  beaten  down  by 
rain,  lost. 

Second  Year.  —  Put  out  an  acre  and  a  half 
of  fine  plants :  large  part  turned  out  poorly. 
Part  of  the  land  was  low,  sour,  and  wet,  and  all 
meagrely  fertilized.  Crop  sold  in  Jacksonville 
for  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 

Third  Year.  —  Three  acres  better,  but  still 
inadequately  manured,  and  half  ruined  by  the 
Christmas  frost :  brought  about  eight  hundred 
dollars. 

Fourth  Year  (1871-72.)  —  Two  acres  better 
manured  ;  planted  in  lowland,  on  ridges  five  feet 
apart :  returned  six  hundred  dollars.  In  favorable 
seasons,  with  good  culture,  an  acre  of  cabbages 
should  yield  a  gross  return  of  five  hundred 
dollars,  of  which  three  hundred  would  be  clear 
profit. 


1 88  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 


CUCUMBERS. 

First  Year.  —  Planted  four  acres,  mostly  new, 
hard,  sour  land,  broad-casting  fifty  bushels  of 
lime  to  the  acre,  and  using  some  weak,  half- 
rotted  compost  in  the  hills :  wretched  crop. 
The  whole  lot  sent  North  :  did  not  pay  for  ship 
ment. 

Second  Year.  —  An  acre  and  a  half  best  land, 
heavily  manured  with  well-rotted  compost  worked 
into  drills  eight  feet  apart  :  yielded  fifty  bushels, 
which  brought  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  in 
New  York.  More  would  have  been  realized,  ex 
cept  that  an  untimely  hail-storm  spoiled  the  vines 
prematurely. 

Third  Year.  —  An  acre  and  a  half,  well  cul 
tivated  and  manured,  yielded  four  hundred 
bushels,  and  brought  a  gross  return  of  thirteen 
hundred  dollars. 


OUR   EXPERIENCE  IN  CROPS.         189 
TOMATOES. 

First  Year.  —  Lost  many  plants  through  rain 
and  wet,  and  insufficient  manure.  Those  we  got 
to  the  New-York  market  brought  from  four  to 
six  dollars  per  bushel. 

Second  Year.  —  Manured  too  heavily  in  the 
hill  with  powerful  unfermented  manures.  A 
heavy  rain  helped  ruin  the  crop.  Those,  how 
ever,  which  we  sent  to  market,  brought  good 

Y 

prices. 

Third  Year.  —  None  planted  for  market ;  but 
those  for  family  use  did  so  well  as  to  put  us  in 
good  humor  with  the  crop,  and  induce  us  to 
plant  for  this  year. 

SWEET-POTATOES, 

Every  year  we  have  had  pretty  good  success 
with  them  on  land  well  prepared  with  lime  and 
ashes.  We  have  had  three  hundred  and  fifty 
bushels  to  the  acre. 


I  Cp  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

.   .'    -  .  .-:^»», 

SUGAR-CANE 

Has  done  very  respectably  on  one-year-old  soil 
manured  with  ashes  only  ;  while  mellow  land, 
well  prepared  with  muck,  ashes,  and  fish-guano, 
has  yielded  about  twenty  barrels  of  sugar  to  the 
acre. 

IRISH   POTATOES. 

We  have  found  these  on  light  soil,  with  only 
moderate  fertilizing,  an  unprofitable  crop  at  four 
dollars,  but  on  good  land,  with  very  heavy  ma 
nuring,  decidedly  profitable  at  two  dollars  per 
bushel.  Pine  potatoes  rarely  are  less  than  that 
in  Jacksonville.  They  will  be  ready  to  dig  in 
April  and  May. 

PEAS 

May  be  extraordinarily  profitable,  and  may  fail 
entirely.  A  mild  winter,  without  severe  frosts, 
would  bring  them  early  into  market.  The 


OUR  EXPERIENCE  IN  CROPS.         19 1 

Christmas  freeze  of,  1870  caught  a  half-acre  ot 
our  peas  in  blossom,  and  killed  them  to  the 
ground. 

Planted  in  the  latter  part  of  January,  both 
peas  and  potatoes  are  pretty  sure.  We  have  not 
done  much  with  peas ;  but  a  neighbor  of  ours 
prefers  them  to  cabbages.  He  gets  about  three 
dollars  per  bushel. 

As  a  general  summary,  our  friend  adds,  — 
"  For  two  years  in  succession,  we  have  found 
our  leading  market-crops  handsomely  remunera 
tive.  The  net  returns  look  well  compared  with 
those  of  successful  gardening  near  New  York. 
Cabbages  raised  here  during  the  fall  and  winter, 
without  any  protection,  bear  as  good  price  as  do 
the  spring  cabbages  which  are  raised  in  cold- 
frames  at  the  North ;  and  early  cucumbers, 
grown  in  the  open  air,  have  been  worth  as  much 
to  us  as  to  Northern  gardeners  who  have  grown 
them  in  hot-beds. 


1 92  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

» 

"  The  secret  of  our  success  is  an  open  one  ;  but 
we  ourselves  do  not  yet  come  up  to  our  mark, 
and  reduce  our  preaching  to  practice.  We  have 
hardly  made  a  good  beginning  in  high  manuring. 
We  did  not  understand  at  first,  as  we  now  do, 
the  difference  between  ordinary  crops  and  early 
vegetables  and  fruits.  Good  corn  may  be  raised 
on  poor  land  at  the  rate  of  five  or  ten  bushels  to 
the  acre  ;  but,  on  a  hundred  acres  of  scantily-fer 
tilized  land,  scarcely  a  single  handsome  cabbage 
can  be  grown.  So  with  cucumbers  :  they  will 
neither  be  early,  nor  fit  for  market,  if  raised  on 
ordinary  land  with  ordinary  culture.  Most  of 
the  market-gardening  in  Florida,  so  far  as  we 
know  it,  cannot  but  prove  disastrous.  Land- 
agents  and  visionaries  hold  forth  that  great 
crops  may  be  expected  from  insignificant  out 
lays  ;  and  so  they  decoy  the  credulous  to  their 
ruin.  To  undertake  raising  vegetables  in  Flori 
da,  with  these  ideas  of  low  culture,  is  to  embark 


OUR  EXPERIENCE  IN  CROPS.         193 

in  a  leaky  and  surely-sinking  ship.  If  one  is 
unwilling  to  expend  for  manure  alone  upon  a 
single  acre  in  one  year  enough  to  buy  a  hun 
dred  acres  of  new  land,  let  him  give  a  wide 
berth  to  market-gardening.  Such  expenditures 
have  to  be  me't  at  the  North ;  and  there  is  no 
getting  round  it  at  the  South. 

"Yet  one  can  economize  here  as  one  cannot  at 
the  North.  The  whole  culture  of  an  early  vege 
table-garden  can  go  on  in  connection  with  the 
later  crop  of  sugar-cane.  Before  our  cabbages 
were  off  the  ground  this  spring,  we  had  our 
cane-rows  between  them  ;  and  we  never  before 
prepared  the  ground  and  planted  the  cane  so 
easily.  On  another  field  we  have  the  cane-rows 
eight  feet  apart,  and  tomatoes  and  snap-beans 
intervening.  We  have  suffered  much  for  lack 
of  proper  drainage.  We  have  actually  lost 
enough  from  water  standing  upon  crops  to  have 
underdrained  the  whole  enclosure.  We  under- 

'3 


194  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

took  to  till  more  acres  than  we  coulchdo  justice 
to.  In  farming,  the  love  of  acres  is  the  root  of 
all  evil." 

So  much  for  our  friend's  experiences.  We 
consider  this  experiment  a  most  valuable  one  for 
all  who  contemplate  buying  land  and  settling  in 
Florida.  It  is  an  experiment  in  which  untiring 
industry,  patience,  and  economy  have  been 
brought  into  exercise.  It  has  been  tried  on  the 
very  cheapest  land  in  Florida,  and  its  results  are 
most  instructive. 

Market-gardening  must  be  the  immediate 
source  of  support ;  and  therefore  this  experiment 
is  exactly  in  point. 

This  will  show  that  the  land  is  the  least  of  the 
expense  in  starting  a  farm  ;  and  that  it  is  best, 
in  the  first  instance,  to  spend  little  for  land,  and 
much  for  the  culture  of  it. 

Thousands  of  people  pour  down  into  Florida 
to  winter,  and  must  be  fed.  The  Jacksonville 


OUR  EXPERIENCE  IN  CROPS.         1 95 

market,  and  the  markets  of  all  the  different 
boarding  establishments  on  the  river,  need 
ample  supplies  ;  and  there  is  no  fear  that  there 
will  not  be  a  ready  sale  for  all  that  could  be 
raised. 

Our  friends  are  willing  to  make  a  free  con 
tribution  of  their  own  failures  and  mistakes  for 
the  good  of  those  who  come  after.  It  shows  that 
a  new  country  must  be  studied  and  tried  before 
success  is  attained.  New-comers,  by  settling  in 
the  vicinity  of  successful  planters,  may  shorten 
the  painful  paths  of  experience. 

All  which  we  commend  to  all  those  who  have 
written  to  inquire  about  buying  land  in  Florida. 


MAY    IN    FLORIDA. 

MANDARIN,  May  28,  1872. 
HE  month  of  May  in  Florida  corre 
sponds    to   July  and  August   at   the 
north. 

Strawberries,  early  peaches,  blackberries,  huc 
kleberries,  blueberries,  and  two  species  of  wild 
plums,  are  the  fruits  of  this  month,  and  make 
us  forget  to  want  the  departing  oranges.  Still, 
however,  some  of  these  cling  to  the  bough  ;  and 
it  is  astonishing  how  juicy  and  refreshing  they 
196 


MAY  IN  FLORIDA.  IQ7 

still  are.  The  blueberries  are  larger  and  sweeter, 
and  less  given  to  hard  seeds,  than  any  we  have 
ever  tasted.  In  the  way  of  garden-vegetables, 
summer  squashes,  string-beans,  and  tomatoes  are 
fully  in  season. 

This  year,  for  the  most  part,  the  month  has 
been  most  delightful  weather. 

With  all  the  pomp  and  glory  of  Nature  in  full 
view;  beholding  in  the  wet,  low  lands  red,  succu 
lent  shoots,  which,  under  the  moist,  fiery  breath  of 
the  season,  seem  really  to  grow  an  inch  at  a  time, 
and  to  shoot  up  as  by  magic  ;  hearing  bird-songs 
filling  the  air  from  morning  to  night,  —  we  feel  a 
sort  of  tropical  exultation,  as  if  great,  succulent 
shoots  of  passion  or  poetry  might  spring  up 
within  us  from  out  this  growing  dream-life. 

The  birds  !  —  who  can  describe  their  jubilees, 
their  exultations,  their  never-ending,  still  begin 
ning  babble  and  jargon  of  sweet  sounds  ?  All 
day  the  air  rings  with  sweet  fanciful  trills  and 


1 98  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

melodies,  as  if  there  were  a  thousand  little  vibrat 
ing  bells.  They  iterate  and  reiterate  one  sweet 
sound  after  another  ;  they  call  to  one  another, 
and  answer  from  thicket  to  thicket ;  they  pipe  ; 
they  whistle  ;  they  chatter  and  mock  at  each 
other  with  airy  defiance  :  and  sometimes  it  seems 
as  if  the  very  air  broke  into  rollicking  bird- 
laughter.  A  naturalist,  who,  like  Thoreau,  has 
sojourned  for  months  in  the  Florida  forests  to 
study  and  observe  Nature,  has  told  us  that  no 
true  idea  of  the  birds'  plumage  can  be  got  till 
the  hot  months  come  on.  Then  the  sun  pours 
light  and  color,  and  makes  feathers  like  steely 
armor. 

The  birds  love  the  sun :  they  adore  him. 
Our  own  Phcebus,  when  his  cage  is  hung  on  the 
shady  side  of  the  veranda,  hangs  sulky  and 
silent ;  but  put  him  in  the  full  blaze  of  the 
sun,  and  while  the  thermometer  is  going  up  to 
the  nineties,  he  rackets  in  a  perfectly  crazy 


MAY  IN  FLORIDA.  199 

abandon  of  bird  babblement,  singing  all  he  ever 
heard  before,  and  trying  his  bill  at  new  notes, 
and,  as  a  climax,  ending  each  outburst  with  a 
purr  of  satisfaction  like  an  overgrown  cat. 
Several  pairs  of  family  mocking-birds  have  their 
nests  somewhere  in  our  orange-trees  ;  and  there 
is  no  end  of  amusement  in  watching  their  dainty 
evolutions.  Sometimes,  for  an  hour  at  a  time, 
one  of  them,  perched  high  and  dry  on  a  topmost 
twig,  where  he  gets  the  full  blaze  of  the  sun, 
will  make  the  air  ring  with  so  many  notes  and 
noises,  that  it  would  seem  as  if  he  were  forty 
birds  instead  of  one.  Then,  again,  you  will  see 
him  stealing  silently  about  as  if  on  some  myste 
rious  mission,  perching  here  and  there  with  a 
peculiar  nervous  jerk  of  his  long  tail,  and  a 
silent  little  lift  of  his  wings,  as  if  he  were  fan 
ning  himself.  What  this  motion  is  for,  we  have 
never  been  able  to  determine. 

Our  plantation,  at   present,  is  entirely  given 


200  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

""S* 

over  to  the  domestic  affairs  of  the  mocking-birds, 
dozens  of  whom  have  built  their  nests  in  the 
green,  inaccessible  fastnesses  of  the  orange-trees, 
and  been  rearing  families  in  security.  Now, 
however,  the  young  birds  are  to  be  taught  to  fly ; 
and  the  air  resounds  with  the  bustle  and  chatter 
of  the  operation.  Take,  for  example,  one  scene 
which  is  going  on  as  we  write.  Down  on  the 
little  wharf  which  passes  through  the  swamp  in 
front  of  our  house,  three  or  four  juvenile  mock 
ing-birds  are  running  up  and  down  like  chickens, 
uttering  plaintive  cries  of  distress.  On  either 
side,  perched  on  a  tall,  dry,  last-year's  coffee- 
bean-stalk,  sit  "papa  and  mamma,"  chattering, 
scolding,  exhorting,  and  coaxing.  The  little 
ones  run  from  side  to  side,  and  say  in  plaintive 
squeaks,  "  I  can't,"  "  I  daren't,"  as  plain  as  birds 
can  say  it.  There !  now  they  spread  their  lit 
tle  wings  ;  and  —  oh,  joy  !  —  they  find  to  their 
delight  that  they  do  not  fall :  they  exult  in  the 


MAY  IN  FLORIDA.  2O1 

possession  of  a  new-born  sense  of  existence. 
As  we  look  at  this  pantomime,  graver  thoughts 
come  over  us,  and  we  think  how  poor,  timid  little 
souls  moan,  and  hang  back,  and  tremble,  when  the 
time  comes  to  leave  this  nest  of  earth,  and  trust 
themselves  to  the  free  air  of  the  world  they  were 
made  for.  As  the  little  bird's  moans  and  cries 
end  in  delight  and  rapture  in  rinding  himself  in  a 
new,  glorious,  free  life ;  so,  just  beyond  the  dark 
step  of  death,  will  come  a  buoyant,  exulting 
sense  of  new  existence.  Our  life  here  is  in  inti 
mate  communion  with  bird-life.  Their  singing 
all  day  comes  in  bursts  and  snatches  ;  and  one 
awakes  to  a  sort  of  wondering  consciousness  of 
the  many  airy  dialects  with  which  the  blue 
heavens  are  filled.  At  night  a  whippoorwill  or 
two,  perched  in  the  cypress-trees,  make  a  plain 
tive  and  familiar  music.  When  the  nights  are 
hot,  and  the  moon  bright,  the  mocking-birds 
burst  into  gushes  of  song  at  any  hour.  At  mid- 


202  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

night  we  have  risen  to  listen  to  them.  Birds 
are  as  plenty  about  us  as  chickens  in  a  barn 
yard  ;  and  one  wonders  at  their  incessant  activity 
and  motion,  and  studies  what  their  quaint  little 
fanciful  ways  may  mean,  half  inclined  to  say 
with  Cowper,  — 

"  But  I,  whatever  powers  were  mine, 
Would  cheerfully  those  gifts  resign 
For  such  a  pair  of  wings  as  thine, 
And  such  a  head  between  'em." 

Speaking  of  birds  reminds  us  of  a  little  pas 
toral  which  is  being  enacted  in  the  neighbor 
hood  of  St.  Augustine.  A  young  man  from 
Massachusetts,  driven  to  seek  health  in  a  milder 
climate,  has  bought  a  spot  of  land  for  a  nursery- 
garden  in  the  neighborhood  of  St.  Augustine. 
We  visited  his  place,  and  found  him  and  his 
mother  in  a  neat  little  cottage,  adorned  only 
with  grasses  and  flowers  picked  in  the  wild 


MAY  IN  FLORIDA.  203 

woods,  and  living  in  perfect  familiarity  with  the 
birds,  which  they  have  learned  to  call  in  from 
the  neighboring  forests.  It  has  become  one  of 
the  fashionable  amusements  in  the  season  for 
strangers  to  drive  out  to  this  cottage  and  see  the 
birds  fed.  At  a  cry  from  the  inmates  of  the 
cottage,  the  blue-jays  and  mocking-birds  will 
come  in  flocks,  settle  on  their  shoulders,  eat  out 
of  their  hands,  or  out  of  the  hands  of  any  one 
who  chooses  to  hold  food  to  them.  When  we 
drove  out,  however,  the  birds  were  mostly  dis 
persed  about  their  domestic  affairs  ;  this  being 
the  nesting  season.  Moreover,  the  ample  sup 
ply  of  fresh  wild  berries  in  the  woods  makes 
them  less  anxious  for  such  dry  food  as  contented 
them  in  winter.  Only  one  pet  mocking-bird 
had  established  himself  in  a  neighboring  tree, 
and  came  at  their  call.  Pic  sat  aloft,  switching 
his  long  tail  with  a  jerky  air  of  indifference,  like 
an  enfant  gdt£.  When  raisins  were  thrown  up, 


204  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

he  caught  them  once  or  twice  ;  but  at  last,  with 
an  evident  bird-yawn,  declared  that  it  was  no  go, 
and  he  didn't  care  for  raisins.  Ungrateful  Pic  ! 
Next  winter,  eager  and  hungry,  he  will  be  grate 
ful  ;  and  so  with  all  the  rest  of  them. 

One  of  the  charms  of  May  not  to  be  forgotten 
is  the  blossoming  of  the  great  Cape  jessamine 
that  stands  at  the  end  of  the  veranda,  which  has 
certainly  had  as  many  as  three  or  four  hundred 
great,  white,  fragrant  flowers  at  once. 

As  near  as  possible,  this  is  the  most  perfect  of 
flowers.  It  is  as  pure  as  the  white  camellia,  with 
the  added  gift  of  exquisite  perfume.  It  is  a 
camellia  with  a  soul !  Its  leaves  are  of  most  bril 
liant  varnished  green  ;  its  buds  are  lovely ;  and 
its  expanded  flower  is  of  a  thick,  waxen  texture, 
and  as  large  as  a  large  camellia.  We  have  sat 
moonlight  nights  at  the  end  of  the  veranda,  and 
enjoyed  it.  It  wraps  one  in  an  atmosphere  of 
perfume.  Only  one  fault  has  this  bush  :  it  bios- 


MAY  IN  FLORIDA.  205 

soms  only  once  a  season  ;  not,  like  the  ever- 
springing  oleander,  for  months.  One  feels  a 
sense  of  hurry  to  enjoy  and  appropriate  a  bloom 
so  rare,  that  lasts  only  a  few  weeks. 

Here  in  Florida,  flowers  form  a  large  item  of 
thought  and  conversation  wherever  one  goes  ; 
and  the  reason  of  it  is  the  transcendent  beauty 
and  variety  that  are  here  presented.  We  have 
just  returned  from  St.  Augustine,  and  seen  some 
gardens  where  wealth  and  leisure  have  expended 
themselves  on  flowers ;  and  in  our  next  chapter 
we  will  tell  of  some  of  these  beauties. 


ST.   AUGUSTINE. 

MANDARIN,  May  30,  1872. 

HE  thermometer  with  us,  during  the 
third  week  in  May,  rose  to  ninety-two 
in  the  shade ;  and  as  we  had  received 
an  invitation  from  a  friend  to  visit  St.  Augustine, 
which  is  the  Newport  of  Florida,  we  thought  it 
a  good  time  to  go  seaward.  So  on  a  pleasant 
morning  we  embarked  on  the  handsome  boat 
"  Florence,"  which  has  taken  so  many  up  the 
206 


ST.  AUGUSTINE.  2O? 

river,  and  thus  secured  all  the  breeze  that  was 
to  be  had. 

"  The  Florence  "  is  used  expressly  for  a  river 
pleasure-boat,  plying  every  day  between  Jack 
sonville  and  Pilatka.  It  is  long  and  airy,  and 
nicely  furnished ;  and  one  could  not  imagine  a 
more  delightful  conveyance.  In  hot  weather, 
one  could  not  be  more  sure  of  cool  breezes  than 
when  sailing  up  and  down  perpetually  in  "  The 
Florence."  Our  destiny,  however,  landed  us  in 
the  very  meridian  of  the  day  at  Tekoi.  Tekoi 
consists  of  a  shed  and  a  sand-bank,  and  a  little 
shanty,  where,  to  those  who  require,  refresh 
ments  are  served. 

On  landing,  we  found  that  we  must  pay  for 
the  pleasure  and  coolness  of  coming  up  river 
in  "  The  Florence "  by  waiting  two  or  three 
mortal  hours  till  "  The  Starlight "  arrived  ;  for 
the  railroad-car  would  not  start  till  the  full 
complement  of  passengers  was  secured.  We 


208  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

had  a  good  opportunity  then  of  testing  what  the 
heat  of  a  Florida  sun  might  be,  untempered  by 
live-oaks  and  orange  shades,  and  unalleviated  by 
ice-water ;  and  the  lesson  was  an  impressive  one. 

The  railroad  across  to  St.  Augustine  is  made 
of  wooden  rails ;  and  the  cars  are  drawn  by 
horses. 

There  was  one  handsome  car  like  those  used 
on  the  New- York  horse-railroads :  the  others 
were  the  roughest  things  imaginable.  Travellers 
have  usually  spoken  of  this  road  with  execration 
for  its  slowness  and  roughness  ;  but  over  this, 
such  as  it  was,  all  the  rank  and  fashion  of  our 
pleasure-seekers,  the  last  winter,  have  been 
pouring  in  unbroken  daily  streams.  In  the 
height  of  the  season,  when  the  cars  were 
crowded,  four  hours  were  said  to  be  consumed 
in  performing  this  fifteen  miles.  We,  however, 
did  it  in  about  two. 

To  us  this   bit    of  ride   through  the  Florida 


ST.  AUGUSTINE.  2OQ 

woods  is  such  a  never-ceasing  source  of  interest 
and  pleasure,  that  we  do  not  mind  the  slowness 
of  it,  and  should  regret  being  whisked  by  at 
steam-speed.  We  have  come  over  it  three 
times  ;  and  each  time  the  varieties  of  shrubs  and 
flowers,  grasses  and  curious  leaves,  were  a 
never-failing  study  and  delight.  Long  reaches 
of  green  moist  land  form  perfect  flower-gardens, 
whose  variety  of  bloom  changes  with  every 
month.  The  woods  hang  full  of  beautiful  climb 
ing  plants.  The  coral  honeysuckle  and  the  red 
bignonia  were  in  season  now.  Through  glimpses 
and  openings  here  and  there  we  could  see  into 
forests  of  wild  orange-trees  ;  and  palmetto-palms 
raised  their  scaly  trunks  and  gigantic  green 
fans.  The  passengers  could  not  help  admiring 
the  flowers  :  and  as  there  were  many  stops  and 
pauses,  and  as  the  gait  of  the  horses  was  never 
rapid,  it  was  quite  easy  for  the  gentlemen  to 
gather  and  bring  in  specimens  of  all  the  beau- 


2 1 0  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

ties  ;  and  the  flowers  formed  the  main  staple  of 
the  conversation.  They  were  so  very  bright 
and  gay  and  varied,  that  even  the  most  unob- 
serving  could  not  but  notice  them. 

St.  Augustine  stands  on  a  flat,  sandy  level, 
encompassed  for  miles  and  miles  by  what  is 
called  "  scrub,"  —  a  mixture  of  low  palmettoes 
and  bushes  of  various  descriptions.  Its  history 
carries  one  back  almost  to  the  middle  ages. 
For  instance,  Menendez,  who  figured  as  com 
mandant  in  its  early  day,  was  afterwards  ap 
pointed  to  command  the  Spanish  Armada,  away 
back  in  the  times  of  Queen  Elizabeth  ;  but, 
owing  to  the  state  of  his  health,  he  did  not  ac 
cept  the  position. 

In  the  year  1586,  Elizabeth  then  being  at  war 
with  Spain,  her  admiral,  Sir  Francis  Drake, 
bombarded  St.  Augustine,  and  took  it ;  helping 
himself,  among  other  things,  to  seven  brass  can 
non,  two  thousand  pounds  in  money,  and  other 


ST.  A  UGUSTINE.  2 1 1 

booty.  In  1605  it  was  taken  and  plundered  by 
buccaneers;  in  1702,  besieged  by  the  people  of 
the  Carolinas  ;  in  1 740,  besieged  again  by  Gen. 
Oglethorpe  of  Georgia. 

So  we  see  that  this  part  of  our  country,  at 
least,  does  not  lie  open  to  the  imputation  so 
often  cast  upon  America,  of  having  no  historic 
associations  ;  though,  like  a  great  deal  of  the 
world's  history,  it  is  written  in  letters  of  blood 
and  fire. 

Whoever  would  know,  let  him  read  Park- 
man's  "  Pioneers  of  France,"  under  the  article 
"  Huguenots  in  Florida,"  and  he  will  see  how 
the  first  Spanish  governor,  Menendez,  thought 
he  did  God  service  when  he  butchered  in  cold 
blood  hundreds  of  starving,  shipwrecked  Hu 
guenots  who  threw  themselves  on  his  mercy, 
and  to  whom  he  had  extended  pledges  of  shelter 
and  protection. 

A  government-officer,  whose  ship  is  stationed 


2 1 2  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

in  Matanzas  Inlet,  told  me  that  the  tradition  is 
that  the  place  is  still  haunted  by  the  unquiet 
ghosts  of  the  dead.  An  old  negro  came  to  him, 
earnestly  declaring  that  he  had  heard  often,  at 
midnight,  shrieks  and  moans,  and  sounds  as  of 
expostulation,  and  earnest  cries  in  some  foreign 
language,  at  that  place ;  and  that  several  white 
people  whom  he  had  taken  to  the  spot  had 
heard  the  same.  On  inquiring  of  his  men, 

Capt.  H could  find  none  who  had  heard  the 

noises  ;  although,  in  digging  in  the  sands,  human 
bones  were  often  disinterred.  But  surely,  by  all 
laws  of  demonology,  here  is  where  there  ought 
to  be  the  materials  for  a  first-class  ghost-story. 
Here,  where  there  has  been  such  crime, 
cruelty,  treachery,  terror,  fear,  and  agony,  we 
might  fancy  mourning  shades  wandering  in 
unrest,  —  shades  of  the  murderers,  forever  de 
ploring  their  crime  and  cruelty. 

The   aspect  of  St.  Augustine  is  quaint  and 


ST.  AUGUSTINE.  213 

strange,  in  harmony  with  its  romantic  history. 
It  has  no  pretensions  to  architectural   richness 
or  beauty  ;  and  yet  it  is  impressive  from  its  un- 
likeness  to  any  thing  else  in  America.     It  is  as 
if  some  little,  old,  dead-and-alive  Spanish  town, 
with   its   fort   and   gateway   and    Moorish   bell- 
towers,    had   broken    loose,   floated    over   here, 
and   got   stranded   on  a  sand-bank.     Here  you 
see  the  shovel-hats  and  black  gowns  of  priests ; 
the  convent,  with  gliding  figures  of  nuns  ;  and 
in  the  narrow,  crooked  streets  meet  dark-browed 
•people  with  great  Spanish  eyes  and  coal-black 
hair.     The  current  of  life  here  has  the  indolent, 
dreamy  stillness  that  characterizes   life   in  Old 
Spain.     In    Spain,  when  you  ask  a  man  to  do 
any  thing,  instead  of  answering  as  we  do,  "  In 
a  minute,"  the  invariable  reply  is,  "  In  an  hour  ; " 
and  the  growth  and  progress  of.  St.  Augustine 
have  been  according.      There  it    stands,  alone, 
isolated,  connected  by  no  good  roads  or  naviga- 


214  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

^ 

tion  with  the  busy,  living  world.  Before  1835, 
St.  Augustine  was  a  bower  of  orange-trees. 
Almost  every  house  looked  forth  from  these  en 
circling  shades.  The  frost  came  and  withered 
all ;  and  in  very  few  cases  did  it  seem  to  come 
into  the  heads  of  the  inhabitants  to  try  again. 
The  orange-groves  are  now  the  exception,  not 
the  rule ;  and  yet  for  thirty  years  it  has  been 
quite  possible  to  have  them. 

As  the  only  seaport  city  of  any  size  in 
Florida,  St.  Augustine  has  many  attractions. 
Those  who  must  choose  a  Southern  home,  and 
who  are  so  situated  that  they  must  remain 
through  the  whole  summer  in  the  home  of  their 
choice,  could  not  do  better  than  to  choose  St. 
Augustine.  It  is  comparatively  free  from  mala 
rial  fevers ;  and  the  sea-air  tempers  the  oppres 
sive  heats  of  summer,  so  that  they  are  quite 
endurable.  Sea-bathing  can  be  practised  in 
suitable  bathing-houses  ;  but  the  sharks  make 


ST.  AUGUSTINE.  215 

open  sea-bathing  dangerous.  If  one  comes  ex 
pecting  a  fine  view-of  the  open  ocean,  however, 
one  will  be  disappointed;  for  Anastasia  Island  — 
a  long,  low  sand-bar  —  stretches  its  barren  line 
across  the  whole  view,  giving  only  so  much  sea- 
prospect  as  can  be  afforded  by  the  arm  of  the 
sea  —  about  two  miles  wide  —  which  washes  the 
town.  Little  as  this  may  seem  of  the  ocean, 
the  town  lies  so  flat  and  low,  that,  in  stormy 
weather,  the  waves  used  to  be  driven  up  into  it, 
so  as  to  threaten  its  destruction.  A  sea-wall  of 
solid  granite  masonry  was  deemed  necessary  to 
secure  its  safety,  and  has  been  erected  by  the 
United-States  Government.  This  wall  affords  a 
favorite  promenade  to  the  inhabitants,  who  there 
enjoy  good  footing  and  sea-breezes. 

What  much  interested  us  in  St.  Augustine 
was  to  see  the  results  of  such  wealth  and  care 
as  are  expended  at  the  North  on  gardening 
being  brought  to  bear  upon  gardens  in  this 


2 16  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

•%> 

semi-tropical  region.  As  yet,  all  that  we  have 
seen  in  Florida  has  been  tke  beginning  of  in 
dustrial  experiments,  where  utility  has  been  the 
only  thing  consulted,  and  where  there  has  been 
neither  time  nor  money  to  seek  the  ornamental. 
Along  the  St.  John's  you  can  see,  to-day,  hun 
dreds  of  places  torn  from  the  forest,  yet  show 
ing- the  unrotted  stumps  of  the  trees  ;  the  house 
standing  in  a  glare  of  loose  white  sand,  in 
which  one  sinks  over  shoes  at  every  step.  If 
there  be  a  flower-garden  (and,  wherever  there  is 
a  woman,  there  will  be),  its  prospects  in  the  loose 
sliding  sands  appear  discouraging.  Boards  and 
brick-edgings  are  necessary  to  make  any  kind 
of  boundaries  ;  and  a  man  who  has  to  cut  down  a 
forest,  dig  a  well,  build  a  house,  plant  an  orange- 
grove,  and  meanwhile  raise  enough  garden-stuff 
to  pay  his  way,  has  small  time  for  the  graces. 

But   here   in  St.  Augustine  are  some  families 
of  wealth   and   leisure,  driven  to   seek  such  a 


ST.  AUGUSTINE.  21? 

winter-home,  who  amuse  themselves  during  their 
stay  in  making  that  home  charming ;  and  the 
results  are  encouraging. 

In  the  first  place,  the  slippery  sand-spirit  has 
been  caught,  and  confined  under  green  grass- 
plats.  The  grass  problem  has  been  an  earnest 
study  with  us  ever  since  we  came  here.  What 
grass  will  bear  a  steady  blaze  of  the  sun  for  six 
months,  with  the  thermometer  at  a  hundred 
and  thirty  or  forty,  is  a  question.  It  is  perfectly 
easy,  as  we  have  proved  by  experiment,  to  raise 
flattering  grass-plats  of  white  clover,  and  even 
of  the  red-top,  during  the  cool,  charming 
months  of  January,  February,  and  March ;  but 
their  history  will  be  summed  up  in  the  scriptu 
ral  account — ."which  to  day  is,  and  to-morrow 
is  cast  into  the  oven"  —  as  soon  as  May  begins. 

The  chances  of  an  enduring  sod  for  ornament 
al  purposes  are  confined  to  two  varieties,  —  the 
broad  and  the  narrow  leafed  Bermuda  grasses. 


2 1 8  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

These  have  roots  that  run  either  to  the  centre 
of  the  earth,  or  far  enough  in  that  direction  for 
practical  purposes  ;  and  are,  besides,  endowed 
with  the  faculty  of  throwing  out  roots  at  every 
joint,  so  that  they  spread  rapidly.  The  broad- 
leafed  kind  is  what  is  principally  employed  in 
St.  Augustine ;  and  we  have  seen  beautifully- 
kept  gardens  where  it  is  cut  into  borders,  and 
where  the  grass-plats  and  croquet-grounds 
have  been  made  of  it  to  admirable  advantage. 
A  surface  of  green  in  this  climate  is  doubly 
precious  to  the  eye. 

We  were  visiting  in  a  house  which  is  a  model 
for  a  hot  climate.  A  wide,  cool  hall  runs 
through  the  centre ;  and  wide  verandas,  both 
above  and  below,  go  around  the  whole  four 
sides.  From  these  we  could  look  down  at  our 
leisure  into  the  foliage  of  a  row  of  Magnolia 
grandiflora,  now  in  blossom.  Ivy,  honey 
suckles,  manrundia,  and  a  host  of  other 

9 


ST.  AUGUSTINE.  219 

climbing  -  plants,  make  a  bower  of  these  out 
side  corridors  of  the  house.  The  calla-lilies 
blossom  almost  daily  in  shaded  spots  ;  and  beds 
of  fragrant  blue  violets  are  never  without 
flowers.  Among  the  ornamental  shrubbery  we 
noticed  the  chaparral,  —  a  thorny  tree,  with 
clusters  of  yellow  blossoms,  and  long,  drooping? 
peculiar  leaves,  resembling  in  effect  the  willow- 
leafed  acacia.  The  banana  has  a  value  simply 
as  an  ornamental-leaf  plant,  quite  apart  from  the 
consideration  of  its  fruit,  which  one  can  buy,  per 
haps,  better  than  one  can  raise,  in  this  part  of 
Florida;  but  it  is  glorious,  when  the  thermometer 
is  going  up  into  the  hundreds,  to  see  the  great, 
fresh,  broad,  cool  leaves  of  the  banana-tree  leap 
ing  into  life,  and  seeming  to  joy  in  existence.  In 
groups  of  different  sizes,  they  form  most  beauti 
ful  and  effective  shrubbery.  The  secret  of 
gardening  well  here  is  to  get  things  that  love 
the  sun.  Plants  that  come  originally  from  hot 


220  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

•  .  •**. 

regions,  and  that  rejoice  the  hotter  it  grows,  are 
those  to  be  sought  for.  The  date-palm  has 
many  beautiful  specimens  in  the  gardens  of  St. 
Augustine.  A  date-palm,  at  near  view,  is  as 
quaint  and  peculiar  51  specimen  of  Nature  as  one 
can  imagine.  Its  trunk  seems  built  up  of  great 
scales,  in  which  ferns  and  vines  root  themselves, 
and  twine  and  ramble,  and  hang  in  festoons. 
Above,  the  leaves,  thirty  feet  long,  fall  in  a 
feathery  arch,  and  in  the  centre,  like  the  waters 
of  a  fountain,  shoot  up  bright,  yellow,  drooping 
branches  that  look  like  coral.  These  are  the 
flower-stalks.  The  fruit,  in  this  climate,  does  not 
ripen  so  as  to  be  good  for  any  thing. 

One  gentleman  showed  me  a  young  palm, 
now  six  feet  high,  which  he  had  raised  from  a 
seed  of  the  common  shop  date,  planted  four 
years  ago.  In  this  same  garden  he  showed  me 
enormous  rose-trees,  which  he  had  formed  by 
budding  the  finest  of  the  Bourbon  ever-bloom- 


ST.  AUGUSTINE.  221 

ing  roses  in  the  native  Florida  rose.  The 
growth  in  three  years  had  been  incredible  ;  and 
these  trees  are  an  ever-springing  fountain  of 
fresh  roses.  There  is  a  rose-tree  in  St.  Augus 
tine,  in  a  little  garden,  which  all  the  sight-seers 
go  to  see.  It  is  a  tree  with  a  trunk  about  the 
size  of  an  ordinary  man's  arm,  and  is  said  to 
have  had  a  thousand  roses  on  it  at  a  time.  Half 
that  number  will  answer  our  purpose  ;  and  we 
will  set  it  down  at  that.  Rose-slugs  and  rose- 
bugs  are  pests  unheard  of  here.  ,  The  rose 
grows  as  in  its  native  home.  One  very  pretty 
feature  of  the  houses  here  struck  me  agreeably. 
There  is  oftentimes  a  sort  of  shaded  walk  under 
half  the  house,  opening  upon  the  garden.  You 
go  up  a  dusty  street,  and  stand  at  a  door,  which 
you  expect  will  open  into  'a  hall.  It  opens, 
and  a  garden  full  of  flowers  and  trees  meets 
your  view.  The  surprise  is  delightful.  In  one 
garden  that  we  visited  we  saw  a  century-plant 


222  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

in  bud.  The  stalk  was  nineteen  feet  high  ;  and 
the  blossoms  seemed  to  promise  to  be  simi 
lar  to  those  of  the  yucca.  The  leaves  are  like 
the  aloe,  only  longer,  and  twisted  and  contorted 
in  a  strange,  weird  fashion.  On  the  whole,  it 
looked  as  if  it  might  have  been  one  of  the 
strange  plants  in  Rappicini's  garden  in  Padua. 

The  society  in  St.  Augustine,  though  not 
extensive,  is  very  delightful.  We  met  and  were 
introduced  to  some  very  cultivated,  agreeable 
people.  There  is  a  fair  prospect  that  the  city 
will  soon  be  united  by  railroad  to  Jacksonville, 
which  will  greatly  add  to  the  facility  and  con 
venience  of  living  there.  We  recrossed  the 
railroad  at  Tekoi,  on  our  way  home,  in  company 
with  a  party  of  gentlemen  who  are  investigating 
that  road  with  a  view  of  putting  capital  into  it, 
and  so  getting  it  into  active  running  order. 
One  of  them  informed  me  that  he  was  also 
going  to  Indian  River  to  explore,  in  view  of  the 


ST.  AUGUSTINE.  223 

projected  plan  to  unite  it  with  the  St.  John's  by 
means  of  a  canal.  Very  sensibly  he  remarked, 
that,  in  order  to  really  make  up  one's  mind  about 
Florida,  one  should  see  it  in  summer ;  to  which 
we  heartily  assented. 

By  all  these  means  this  beautiful  country  is 
being  laid  open,  and  made  accessible  and  inhabit 
able  as  a  home  and  refuge  for  those  who  need  it. 

On  the  steamboat,  coming  back,  we  met  the 
Florida  Thoreau  of  whom  we  before  spoke, — 
a  devoted,  enthusiastic  lover  of  Nature  as  she 
reveals  herself  in  the  most  secluded  everglades 
and  forests.  He  supports  himself,  and  pays  the 
expenses  of  his  tours,  by  selling  the  curiosities 
of  Nature  which  he  obtains  to  the  crowd  of 
eager  visitors  who  throng  the  hotels  in  winter. 
The  feathers  of  the  pink  curlew,  the  heron,  the 
crane,  the  teeth  of  alligators,  the  skins  of  deer, 
panther,  and  wild-cat,  are  among  his  trophies. 
He  asserted  with  vehemence  that  there  were 


224  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

* 

varieties  of  birds  in  Florida  unknown  as  yet  to 
any  collection  of  natural  history.  He  excited 
us  greatly  by  speaking  of  a  pair  of  pet  pink 
cu'rlews  which  had  been  tamed  ;  also  of  a  snow- 
white  stork,  with  sky-blue  epaulet  on  each 
shoulder,  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  everglades. 
He  was  going  to  spend  the  whole  summer  alone 
in  these  regions,  or  only  with  Indian  guides  ; 
and  seemed  cheerful  and  enthusiastic.  He 
should  find  plenty  of  cocoanuts,  and  would 
never  need  to  have  a  fever  if  he  would  eat  daily 
of  the  wild  oranges  which  abound.  If  one  only 
could  go  in  spirit,  and  not  in  flesh,  one  would 
like  to  follow  him  into  the  everglades.  The 
tropical  forests  of  Florida  contain  visions  and 
wonders  of  growth  and  glory  never  yet  revealed 
to  the  eye  of  the  common  traveller,  and  which 
he  who  sees  must  risk  much  to  explore.  Our 
best  wishes  go  with  our  enthusiast.  May  he 
live  to  tell  us  what  he  sees  ! 


OUR  NEIGHBOR  OVER  THE  WAY. 

MANDARIN,  May  14,  1872. 
UR  neighbor  over  the  way  is  not,  to 

I 

be  sure,  quite  so  near  or  so  observa 
ble  as  if  one  lived  on  Fifth  Avenue 
or  Broadway. 

Between  us  and  his  cottage  lie  five  good  miles 
of  molten  silver  in  the  shape  of  the  St.  John's 
River,  outspread  this  morning  in  all  its  quivering 

sheen,  glancing,   dimpling,   and  sparkling,   dot- 
is  225 


226  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

ted  with  sail-boats,  and  occasionally  ploughed 
by  steamboats  gliding  like  white  swans  back 
and  forth  across  the  distance. 

Far  over  on  the  other  side,  where  the  wooded 
shores  melt  into  pearly  blue  outlines,  gleams  out 
in  the  morning  sun  a  white,  glimmering  spot 
about  as  big  as  a  ninepence,  which  shows  us 
where  his  cottage  stands.  Thither  we  are  going 
to  make  a  morning  visit.  Our  water-coach  is 
now  approaching  the  little  wharf  front  of  our 
house  :  and  we  sally  forth  equipped  with  our  sun- 
umbrellas  ;  for  the  middle  of  May  here  is  like 
the  middle  of  August  at  the  North.  The  water- 
coach,  or  rather  omnibus,  is  a  little  thimble  of  a 
steamer,  built  for  pleasuring  on  the  St.  John's, 
called  "The  Mary  Draper."  She  is  a  tiny 
shell  of  a  thing,  but  with  a  nice,  pretty  cabin, 
and  capable  of  carrying  comfortably  thirty  or 
forty  passengers.  During  the  height  of  the  trav 
elling-season  "The  Mary  Draper"  is  let  out  to 


OUR  NEIGHBOR   OVER   THE    WAY.      22J 

parties  of  tourists,  who  choose  thus  at  their  leisure 
to  explore  the  river,  sailing,  landing,  rambling, 
exploring,  hunting,  fishing,  and  perhaps  inevi 
tably  flirting  among  the  flowery  nooks  and  pal 
metto-hammocks  of  the  shore.  We  have  seen 
her  many  a  time  coming  gayly  back  from  an  ex 
cursion,  with  the  voice  of  singing,  and  laugh  of 
youths  and  maidens,  resounding  from  her  deck, 
flower-wreathed  and  flower-laden  like  some 
fabled  bark  from  the  fairy  isles.  But  now,  in 
the  middle  of  May,  the  tourists  are  few  ;  and  so 
"  The  Mary  Draper  "  has  been  turned  into  a  sort 
of  errand-boat,  plying  up  and  down  the  river  to 
serve  the  needs  and  convenience  of  the  perma 
nent  inhabitants.  A  flag  shown  upon  pur  wharf 
brings  her  in  at  our  need  ;  and  we  step  gayly  on 
board,  to  be  carried  across  to  our  neighbors. 

We  take  our  seats  at  the  shaded  end  of  the 
boat,  and  watch  the  retreating  shore,  with  its 
gigantic  live-oaks  rising  like  a  dome  above  the 


228  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

"'<& 

orange-orchards,  its  clouds  of  pink  oleander- 
trees  that  seem  every  week  to  blossom  fuller 
than  the  last ;  and  for  a  little  moment  we  can 
catch  the  snow-white  glimmer  of  the  great  Cape 
jessamine-shrub  that  bends  beneath  the  weight 
of  flowers  at  the  end  of  our  veranda.  Our  little 
cottage  looks  like  a  rabbit's  nest  beside  the 
monster  oaks  that  shade  it ;  but  it  is  cosey  to  see 
them  all  out  on  the  low  veranda,  —  the  Professor 
with  his  newspapers,  the  ladies  with  their 
worsteds  and  baskets,  in  fact  the  whole  of  our 
large  family,  —  all  reading,  writing,  working,  in 
the  shady  covert  of  the  orange-trees. 

From  time  to  time  a  handkerchief  is  waved 
on  their  part,  and  the  signal  returned  on  ours ; 
and  they  follow  our  receding  motions  with  a  spy 
glass.  Our  life  is  so  still  and  lonely  here,  that 
even  so  small  an  event  as  our  crossing  the  river 
for  a  visit  is  all-absorbing. 

But,  after  a  little,  our  craft  melts  off  into  the 


OUR  NEIGHBOR   OVER    THE    WAY.      229 

distance,  "  The  Mary  Draper  "  looks  to  our  friends 
no  larger  than  a  hazel-nut,  and  the  trees  of  the 
other  side  loom  up  strong  and  tall  in  our  eyes, 
and  grow  clearer  and  clearer ;  while  our  home, 
with  its  great  live-oaks  and  its  orange-groves, 
has  all  melted  into  a  soft  woolly  haze  of  distance. 
Our  next  neighbor's  great  whitewashed  barn  is 
the  only  sign  of  habitation  remaining ;  and  that 
flashes  out  a  mere  shining  speck  in  the  distance. 

Now  the  boat  comes  up  to  Mr. 's  wharf ; 

and  he  is  there  to  meet  and  welcome  us. 

One  essential  to  every  country-house  on  the 
St.  John's  is  this  accessory  of  a  wharf  and  boat- 
house.  The  river  is,  for  a  greater  or  less  dis 
tance  from  the  shore,  too  shallow  to  admit  the 
approach  of  steamboats  ;  and  wharves  of  fifty 
or  a  hundred  feet  in  length  are  needed  to  enable 
passengers  to  land. 

The  bottom  of  the  river  is  of  hard,  sparkling 
white  sand,  into  which  spiles  are  easily  driven  ; 


230  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

••-*- 

and  the  building  and  keeping-up  of  such  a  wharf 
is  a  trifling  trouble  and  expense  in  a  land  where 
lumber  is  so  plentiful. 

Our  friend  Mr. is,  like  many  other  old 

Floridian  residents,  originally  from  the  North. 
In  early  youth  he  came  to  Florida  a  condemned 
and  doomed  consumptive,  recovered  his  health, 
and  has  lived  a  long  and  happy  life  here,  and 
acquired  a  handsome  property. 

He  owns  extensive  tracts  of  rich  and  beautiful 
land  on  the  west  bank  of  the  St.  John's,  between 
it  and  Jacksonville,  destined,  as  that  city  grows 
and  extends,  to  become  of  increasing  value. 
His  wife,  like  himself .  originally  of 'Northern 
origin,  has  become  perfectly  acclimated  and  nat 
uralized  by  years'  residence  at  the  South  ;  and  is, 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  Southern  woman. 
They  live  all  the  year  upon  their  place ;  those 
who  formerly  were  their  slaves  settled  peaceably 
around  them  as  free  laborers,  still  looking  up 


OUR  NEIGHBOR   OVER  THE    WAY.      2$l 

to  them  for  advice,  depending  on  them  for  aid, 
and  rendering  to  them  the  willing,  well-paid  ser 
vices  of  freemen. 

Their  house  is  a  simple  white  cottage,  sit 
uated  so  as  to  command  a  noble  view  of  the 
river.  A  long  avenue  of  young  live-oak-trees 
leads  up  from  the  river  to  the  house.  The 
ground  is  covered  with  a  smooth,  even  turf  of 
Bermuda  grass,  —  the  only  kind  that  will  endure 
the  burning  glare  of  the  tropical  summer.  The 
walls  of  the  house  are  covered  with  roses,  now 
in  full  bloom.  La  Marque,  cloth-of-gold,  and 
many  another  kind,  throw  out  their  splendid 
clusters,  and  fill  the  air  with  fragrance.  We 

find  Mrs. and  her  family  on  the  veranda, — 

the  usual  reception-room  in  a  Southern  house. 
The  house  is  the  seat  of  hospitality ;  every  room 
in  it  sure  to  be  full,  if  not  with  the  members  of 
the  family  proper,  then  with  guests  from  Jack 
sonville,  who  find,  in  this  high,  breezy  situation, 
a  charming  retreat  from  the  heat  of  the  city. 


232  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

One  feature  is  characteristic  of  Southern 
houses,  so  far  as  we  have  seen.  The  ladies  are 
enthusiastic  plant-lovers ;  and  the  veranda  is 
lined  round  with  an  array  of  boxes  in  which  gar 
dening  experiments  are  carried  on.  Rare  plants, 
slips,  choice  seedlings,  are  here  nurtured  and 
cared  for.  In  fact,  the  burning  power  of  the 
tropical  sun,  and  the  scalding,  fine  white  sand,  is 
such,  that  to  put  a  tender  plant  or  slip  into  it 
seems,  in  the  words  of  Scripture,  like  casting  it 
into  the  oven  ;  and  so  there  is  everywhere  more 
or  less  of  this  box-gardening. 

The  cottage  was  all  in  summer  array  ;  the 
carpets  taken  up  and  packed  away,  leaving  the 
smooth,  yellow  pine  floors  clean  and  cool  as 
the  French  parquets. 

The  plan  of  the  cottage  is  the  very  common 
one  of  Southern  houses.  A  wide,  clear  hall,  fur 
nished  as  a  sitting-room,  opening  on  a  veranda 
on  either  end,  goes  through  the  house ;  and  all 


OUR  NEIGHBOR   OVER   THE    IV AY.      233 

the  other  rooms  open  upon  it.  We  sat  chatting, 
first  on  the  veranda ;  and,  as  the  sun  grew  hot 
ter,  retreated  inward  to  the  hall,  and  discussed 
flowers,  farm,  and  dairy. 

On  the  east  bank  of  the  St.  John's,  where  our 
own  residence  is,  immediately  around  Mandarin, 
the  pasturage  is  poor,  and  the  cattle  diminutive 
and  half  starved.  Knowing  that  our  neighbor 
was  an  old  resident,  and  enthusiastic  stock-raiser 
and  breeder,  we  came  to  him  for  knowledge  on 
these  subjects.  Stock-breeding  has  received  a 
great  share  of  attention  from  the  larger  planters 
of  Florida.  The  small  breed  of  wild  native 
Florida  cattle  has  been  crossed  and  improved  by 
foreign  stock  imported  at  great  expense.  The 
Brahmin  cattle  of  India,  as  coming  from  a  tropical 
region,  were  thought  specially  adapted  to  the 
Floridian  climate,  and  have  thriven  well  here. 
By  crossing  these  with  the  Durham  and  Ayr 
shire  and  the  native  cattle,  fine  varieties  of  ani- 


234  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

mals  have  been  obtained.     Mr. showed  me 

a  list  of  fifty  of  his  finest  cows,  each  one  of  which 
has  its  distinguishing  name,  and  with  whose 
pedigree  and  peculiarities  he  seemed  well  ac 
quainted. 

In  rearing,  the  Floridian  system  has  always 
been  to  make  every  thing  subservient  to  the  in 
crease  of  the  herd.  The  calf  is  allowed  to  run 
with  the  cow ;  and  the  supply  of  milk  for  the 
human  being  is  only  what  is  over  and  above  the 
wants  of  the  calf.  The  usual  mode  of  milking  is 
to  leave  the  calf  sucking  on  one  side,  while  the 
milker  sits  on  the  other,  and  gets  his  portion. 
It  is  an  opinion  fixed  as  fate  in  the  mind  of 
every  negro  cow-tender,  that  to  kill  a  calf  would 
be  the  death  of  the  mother  ;  and  that,  if  you  sep 
arate  the  calf  from  the  mother,  her  milk  will  dry 
up.  Fresh  veal  is  a  delicacy  unheard  of;  and 
once,  when  we  suggested  a  veal-pie  to  a  strapping 
Ethiopian  dairy-woman,  she  appeared  as  much 


OUR  NEIGHBOR   OVER   THE   WAY.      235 

shocked  as  if  we  had  proposed  to  fricassee  a  baby. 

Mr. ,  however,  expressed  his  conviction  that 

the  Northern  method  of  taking  off  the  calf,  and 
securing  the  cow's  milk,  could  be  practised 
with  success,  and  had  been  in  one  or  two  cases. 
The  yield  of  milk  of  some  of  the  best  blood  cows 
was  quite  equal  to  that  of  Northern  milkers,  and 
might  be  kept  up  by  good  feeding.  As  a  rule, 
however,  stock-raisers  depend  for  their  supply 
of  milk  more  on  the  number  of  their  herd  than 
the  quantity  given  by  each.  The  expenses  of 
raising  are  not  heavy  where  there  is  a  wide  ex 
panse  of  good  pasture-land  for  them  to  range  in, 
and  no  necessity  for  shelters  of  any  kind  through 
the  year. 

Mr. spoke  of  the  river-grass  as  being  a 

real  and  valuable  species  of  pasturage.  On  the 
west  side  of  the  river,  the  flats  and  shallows 
along  by  the  shore  are  covered  with  a  broad- 
leaved  water-grass,  very  tender  and  nutritious,  of 


236  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

which  cattle  are  very  fond.  It  is  a  curious  sight 
to  see  whole  herds  of  cows  browsing  in  the 
water,  as  one  may  do  every  day  along  the  course 
of  this  river. 

The  subject  of  dairy-keeping  came  up  ; 

and,  at  our  request,  Mrs. led  the  way  to 

hers.  It  is  built  out  under  a  dense  shade 
of  trees  in  an  airy  situation,  with  double  walls 
like  an  ice-house.  The  sight  of  the  snowy 
shelves  set  round  with  pans,  on  which  a  rich 
golden  cream  was  forming,  was  a  sufficient  tes 
timony  that  there  could  be  beautiful,  well-kept 
dairies  in  Florida,  notwithstanding  its  tropical 
heats. 

The  butter  is  made  every  morning  at  an  early 
hour  ;  and  we  had  an  opportunity  of  tasting  it 
at  the  dinner-table.  Like  the  best  butter  of 
France  and  England,  it  is  sweet  and  pure,  like 
solidified  cream,  and  as  different  as  can  be  from 
the  hard,  salty  mass  which  most  generally  passes 


OUR  NEIGHBOR   OVER    THE    WAY.      237 

for  butter  among  us.  The  buttermilk  of  a  daily 
churning  is  also  sweet  and  rich,  a  delicious 
nourishing  drink,  and  an  excellent  adjuvant  in 
the  making  of  various  cakes  and  other  household 
delicacies. 

Our  friend's  experience  satisfied  us  that  there 
was  no  earthly  reason  in  the  climate  or  surround 
ings  of  Florida  why  milk  and  butter  should  be 
the  scarce  and  expensive  luxuries  they  are  now. 
What  one  private  gentleman  can  do  simply  for 
his  own  comfort  and  that  of  his  family,  we  should 
think  might  be  repeated  on  a  larger  scale  by 
somebody  in  the  neighborhood  of  Jacksonville  as 
a  money  speculation.  Along  the  western  bank 
of  this  river  are  hundreds  of  tracts  of  good  graz 
ing  land,  where  cattle  might  be  pastured  at  small 
expense  ;  where  the  products  of  a  dairy  on  a  large 
scale  would  meet  a  ready  and  certain  sale.  At 
present  the  hotels  and  boarding-houses  are  sup 
plied  with  condensed  milk,  and  butter,  imported 


238  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

from  the  North :  and  yet  land  is  cheap  here  ; 
labor  is  reasonable  ;  the  climate  genial,  requiring 
no  outlay  for  shelter,  and  comparatively  little 
necessity  of  storing  food  for  winter.  Fine  breeds 
of  animals  of  improved  stock  exist  already,  and 
can  be  indefinitely  increased  ;  and  we  wonder 
that  nobody  is  to  be  found  to  improve  the  op 
portunity  to  run  a  stock  and  dairy  farm  which 
shall  supply  the  hotels  and  boarding-houses  of 
Jacksonville. 

After  visiting  the  dairy,  we  sauntered  about, 
looking  at  the  poultry-yards,  where  different 
breeds  of  hens,  turkeys,  pea-fowl,  had  each  their 
allotted  station.  Four  or  five  big  dogs,  hounds 
and  pointers,  trotted  round  with  us,  or  rollicked 
with  a  party  of  grandchildren,  assisted  by  the 
never-failing  addition  of  a  band  of  giggling  little 
negroes.  As  in  the  old  times,  the  servants  of  the 
family  have  their  little  houses  back  of  the  prem 
ises  ;  and  the  laundry-work,  &c.,  is  carried  on 


OUR  NEIGHBOR   OVER    THE    WAY.      239 

outside.  The  propensity  at  the  South  is  to  mul 
tiply  little  buildings.  At  the  North,  where  there 
is  a  winter  to  be  calculated  on,  the  tactics  of 
living  are  different.  The  effort  is  to  gather  all 
the  needs  and  wants  of  life  under  one  roof,  to  be 
warmed  and  kept  in  order  at  small  expense.  In 
the  South,  where  building-material  is  cheap,  and 
building  is  a  slight  matter,  there  is  a  separate 
little  building  for  every  thing ;  and  the  back 
part  of  an  estate  looks  like  an  eruption  of  little 
houses.  There  is  a  milk-house,  a  corn-house,  a 
tool-house,  a  bake-house,  besides  a  house  for  each 
of  the  leading  servants,  making  quite  a  village. 

Our  dinner  was  a  bountiful  display  of  the  luxu 
ries  of  a  Southern  farm,  —  finely-flavored  fowl 
choicely  cooked,  fish  from  the.  river,  soft-shell 
turtle-soup,  with  such  a  tempting  variety  of  early 
vegetables  as  seemed  to  make  it  impossible  to 

do  justice   to   all.      Mrs. offered  us  a  fine 

sparkling  wine  made  of  the  juice  of  the  wild- 


240  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

'•* 
orange.     In  color  it  resembled  the  finest  sherry, 

and  was  much  like  it  in  flavor. 

We  could  not  help  thinking,  as  we  refused 
dainty  after  dainty,  from  mere  inability  to  take 
more,  of  the  thoughtless  way  in  which  it  is  often 
said  that  there  can  be  nothing  fit  to  eat  got  in 
Florida. 

Mr.  — — 's  family  is  supplied  with  food  almost 
entirely  from  the  products  of  his  own  farm. 
He  has  the  nicest  of  fed  beef,  nice  tender 
pork,  poultry  of  all  sorts,  besides  the  resources 
of  an  ample,  well-kept  dairy.  He  raises  and 
makes  his  own  sirup.  He  has  sweet-potatoes, 
corn,  and  all  Northern  vegetables,  in  perfection  ; 
peaches,  grapes  of  finest  quality,  besides  the 
strictly  tropical  fruits  ;  and  all  that  he  has,  any 
other  farmer  might  also  have  with  the  same 
care. 

After  dinner  we  walked  out  to  look  at  the 
grapes,  which  hung  in  profuse  clusters,  just 


OUR  NEIGHBOR' OVER   THE    WAY.      241 

beginning  to  ripen  on  the  vines.  On  our  way 
we  stopped  to  admire  a  great  bitter-sweet 
orange-tree,  which  seemed  to  make  "  Hesperian 
fables  true."  It  was  about  thirty  feet  in  height, 
and  -with  branches  that  drooped  to  the  ground, 
weighed  down  at  the  same  time  with  great 
golden  balls  of  fruit,  and  wreaths  of  pearly  buds 
and  blossoms.  Every  stage  of  fruit,  from  the 
tiny  green  ball  of  a  month's  growth  to  the  per 
fected  orange,  were  here  ;  all  the  processes  of 
life  going  on  together  in  joyous  unity.  The  tree 
exemplified  what  an  orange-tree  could  become 
when  fully  fed,  when  its  almost  boundless  capa 
city  for  digesting  nutriment  meets  a  full  supply ; 
and  it  certainly  stood  one  of  the  most  royal  of 
trees.  Its  leaves  were  large,  broad,  and  of  that 
glossy,  varnished  green  peculiar  to  the  orange ; 
and  its  young  shoots  looked  like  burnished  gold. 
The  bitter-sweet  orange  is  much  prized  by  some. 
The  pulp  is  sweet,  with  a  certain  spicy  flavor ;  but 

16 


242  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

••-* 

the  rind,  and  all  the  inner  membranes  that  con 
tain  the  fruit,  are  bitter  as  quinine  itself.  It  is 
held  to  be  healthy  to  eat  of  both,  as  the  acid 
and  the  bitter  are  held  to  be  alike  correctives 
of  the  bilious  tendencies  of  the  climate. 

But  the  afternoon  sun  was  casting  the  shad 
ows  the  other  way,  and  the  little  buzzing  "  Mary 
Draper"  was  seen  puffing  in  the  distance  on  her 
way  back  from  Jacksonville  ;  and  we  walked 
leisurely  down  the  live-oak  avenues  to  the  wharf, 
our  hands  full  of  roses  and  Oriental  jessamine, 
and  many  pleasant  memories  of  our  neighbors 
over  the  way. 

And  now  in  relation  to  the  general  subject  of 
farming  in  Florida.  Our  own  region  east  of  the 
St.  John's  River  is  properly  a  little  sandy  belt 
of  land,  about  eighteen  miles  wide,  washed  by 
the  Atlantic  Ocean  on  one  side,  and  the  St. 
John's  River  on  the  other.  It  is  not  by  any 
means  so  well  adapted  to  stock-farming  or 


OUR  NEIGHBOR   OVER   THE   WAY.      243 

general  farming  as  the  western  side  of  the  river. 
Its  principal  value  is  in  fruit-farming  ;  and  it  will 
appear,  by  a  voyage  up  the  river,  that  all  the 
finest  old  orange-groves  and  all  the  new  orange- 
plantations  are  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  river. 

The  presence,  on  either  side,  of  two  great 
bodies  of  water,  produces  a  more  moist  and 
equable  climate,  and  less  liability  to  frosts.  In 
the  great  freeze  of  1835,  the  orange-groves  of 
the  west  bank  were  killed  beyond  recovery ; 
while  the  fine  groves  of  Mandarin  sprang  up 
again  from  the  root,  and  have  been  vigorous 
bearers  for  years  since. 

But  opposite  Mandarin,  along  the  western 
shore,  lie  miles  and  miles  of  splendid  land  — 
which  in  the  olden  time  produced  cotton  of  the 
finest  quality,  sugar,  rice,  sweet-potatoes  —  now 
growing  back  into  forest  with  a  tropical  rapidity. 
The  land  lies  high,  and  affords  fine  sites  for  dwell 
ings  ;  and  the  region  is  comparatively  healthy. 


244  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

Then  Hibernia,  Magnolia,  and  Green  Cove,  on 
the  one  side,  and  Jacksonville  on  the  other,  show 
perfect  assemblages  of  boarding-houses  and 
hotels,  where  ready  market  might  be  found  for 
what  good  farmers  might  raise.  A  colony  of 
farmers  coming  out  and  settling  here  together, 
bringing  with  them  church  and  schoolhouse, 
with  a  minister  skilled  like  St.  Bernard  both  in 
husbandry  and  divinity,  might  soon  create  a 
thrifty  farming-village.  We  will  close  this  chap 
ter  with  an  extract  from  a  letter  of  a  Northern 
emigrant  recently  settled  at  Newport,  on  the 
north  part  of  Appalachicola  Bay. 

SEPT.  22,  1872. 

I  have  been  haying  this  month :  in  fact  I  had 
mowed  my  orange-grove,  a  square  of  two  acres, 
from  time  to  time,  all  summer.  But  this  month 
a  field  of  two  acres  had  a  heavy  burden  of 
grass,  with  cow-pease  intermixed.  In  some 
parts  of  the  field,  there  certainly  would  be  at  the 


OUR  NEIGHBOR  OVER    THE    WAY.      245 

rate  of  three  tons  to  the  acre.  The  whole  field 
would  average  one  ton  to  the  acre.  So  I  went 
at  it  with  a  good  Northern  scythe,  and  mowed 
every  morning  an  hour  or  two.  The  hay  was 
perfectly  cured  by  five,  P.M.,  same  day,  and  put 
in  barn.  The  land,  being  in  ridges,  made  mow 
ing  difficult.  Next  year  I  mean  to  lay  that  land 
down  to  grass,  taking  out  stumps,  and  making 
smooth,  sowing  rye  and  clover.  I  shall  plough 
it  now  as  soon  as  the  hay  is  all  made,  and  sow 
the  rye  and  clover  immediately.  I  have  five 
cows  that  give  milk,  and  four  that  should  come 
in  soon.  These,  with  their  calves,  I  shall  feed 
through  the  months  when  the  grass  is  poor.  I 
have  also  a  yoke  of  oxen  and  four  young  steers, 
with  Trim  the  mule.  I  have  already  in  the  barn 
three  to  four  tons  of  hay  and  corn-fodder,  and  two 
acres  of  cow-pease  cured,  to  be  used  as  hay.  I 
hope  to  have  five  hundred  bushels  of  sweet-pota 
toes,  which,  for  stock,  are  equal  to  corn.  I  made 


246  PA  LME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

« 

a  hundred  and  ten  bushels  of  corn,  twenty-five 
to  the  acre.  My  cane  is  doing  moderately  well. 
Hope  to  have  all  the  seed  I  want  to  plant  four 
teen  acres  next  year.  Bananas  thrive  beauti 
fully  ;  shall  have  fifty  offsets  to  set  out  this 
winter ;  also  three  or  four  thousand  oranges, 
all  large-sized  and  fair. 

All  these  facts  go  to  show,  that,  while  Florida 
cannot  compete  with  the  .Northern  and  Western 
States  as  a  grass-raising  State,  yet  there  are 
other  advantages  in  her  climate  and  productions 
which  make  stock-farming  feasible  and  prof 
itable.  The  disadvantages  of  her  burning 
climate  may,  to  a  degree,  be  evaded  and  over 
come  by  the  application  of  the  same  patient 
industry  and  ingenuity  which  rendered  fruitful 
the  iron  soil  and  freezing  climate  of  the  New- 
England  States. 


THE   GRAND    TOUR    UP   RIVER. 

HE  St.  John's  is  the  grand  water- 
highway  through  some  of  the  most 
beautiful  portions  of  Florida  ;  and 
tourists,  safely  seated  at  ease  on  the  decks  of 
steamers,  can  penetrate  into  the  mysteries  and 
wonders  of  unbroken  tropical  forests. 

During  the  "  season,"  boats  continually  run 
from  Jacksonville  to  Enterprise,  and  back  again  ; 
the  round  trip  being  made  for  a  moderate  sum, 

247 


248  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

'  «r 

and  giving,  in   a  very  easy   and   comparatively 

inexpensive  manner,  as  much  of  the  peculiar 
scenery  as  mere  tourists  care  to  see.  On  re 
turning,  a  digression  is  often  made  at  Tekoi, 
where  passengers  cross  a  horse-railroad  of  fifteen 
miles  to  St.  Augustine  ;  thus  rendering  their 
survey  of  East  Florida  more  complete.  In  fact, 
what  may  be  seen  and  known  of  the  State  in 
such  a  trip  is  about  all  that  the  majority  of 
tourists  see  and  know. 

The  great  majority  also  perform  this  trip,  and 
see  this  region,  in  the  dead  of  winter,  when  cer 
tainly  one-half  of  the  glorious  forests  upon  the 
shore  are  bare  of  leaves. 

It  is  true  that  the  great  number  of  evergreen- 
trees  here  make  the  shores  at  all  times  quite 
different  from  those  of  a  Northern  climate ;  yet 
the  difference  between  spring  and  winter  is  as 
great  here  as  there. 

Our  party  were  resolute  in  declining  all  invi- 


THE  GRAND  TOUR   UP  RIVER.        249 

tations  to  join  parties  in  January,  February,  and 
March ;  being  determined  to  wait  till  the  new 
spring  foliage  was  in  its  glory. 

When  the  magnolia-flowers  were  beginning 
to  blossom,  we  were  ready,  and  took  passage  — 
a  joyous  party  of  eight  or  ten  individuals  —  on 
the  steamer  "  Darlington,"  commanded  by  Capt. 
Broch,  and,  as  is  ofteri  asserted,  by  "  Commodore 
Rose." 

This  latter,  in  this  day  of  woman's  rights,  is 
no  mean  example  of  female  energy  and  vigor. 
She  is  stewardess  of  the  boat,  and  magnifies  her 
office.  She  is  a  colored  woman,  once  a  slave 
owned  by  Capt.  Broch,  but  emancipated,  as  the 
story  goes,  for  her  courage,  and  presence  of  mind, 
in  saving  his  life  in  a  steamboat  disaster. 

Rose  is  short  and  thick,  weighing  some  two 
or  three  hundred,  with  a  brown  complexion,  and  a 
pleasing  face  and  fine  eyes.  Her  voice,  like  that 
of  most  colored  women,  is  soft,  and  her  manner 


250  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

of  speaking  pleasing.  All  this,  however,  relates 
to  her  demeanor  when  making  the  agreeable  to 
passengers.  In  other  circumstances,  doubtless, 
she  can  speak  louder,  and  with  considerable  more 
emphasis  ;  and  show,  in  short,  those  martial  attri 
butes  which  have  won  for  her  the  appellation  of 
the  "Commodore."  It  is  asserted  that  the  whole 
charge  of  provisioning  and  running  the  boat,  and 
all  its  internal  arrangements,  vests  in  Madam 
Rose ;  and  that  nobody  can  get  ahead  of  her  in 
a  bargain,  or  resist  her  will  in  an  arrangement. 

She  knows  every  inch  of  the  river,  every  house, 
every  plantation  along  shore,  its  former  or 
present  occupants  and  history ;  and  is  always 
ready  with  an  answer  to  a  question.  The 
arrangement  and  keeping  of  the  boat  do  honor 
to  her.  Nowhere  in  Florida  does  the  guest  sit 
at  a  more  bountifully-furnished  table.  Our 
desserts  and  pastry  were  really,  for  the  wilder 
ness,  something  quite  astonishing. 


THE  GRAND   TOUR   UP  RIVER.        251 

The  St.  John's  River  below  Pilatka  has  few 
distinguishing  features  to  mark  it  out  from 
other  great  rivers.  It  is  so  wide,  that  the  foliage 
of  the  shores  cannot  be  definitely  made  out  ; 
and  the  tourist  here,  expecting  his  palm-trees 
and  his  magnolias  and  flowering-vines,  is  disap 
pointed  by  sailing  in  what  seems  a  never-ending 
great  lake,  where  the  shores  are  off  in  the  dis 
tance  too  far  to  make  out  any  thing  in  particular. 
But,  after  leaving  Pilatka,  the  river  grows  nar 
rower,  the  overhanging  banks  approach  nearer, 
and  the  foliage  becomes  more  decidedly  tropical 
in  its  character.  Our  boat,  after  touching  as 
usual  at  Hibernia,  Magnolia,  and  Green  Cove, 
brought  up  at  Pilatka  late  in  the  afternoon,  made 
but  a  short  stop,  and  was  on  her  way  again. 

It  was  the  first  part  of  May ;  and  the  forests 
were  in  that  fulness  of  leafy  perfection  which 
they  attain  in  the  month  of  June  at  the  North. 
But  there  is  a  peculiar,  vivid  brilliancy  about  the 


252  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

green  of  the  new  spring-leaves  here,  which  we 
never   saw   elsewhere.      It  is   a  brilliancy  like 
some  of  the  new  French  greens,  now  so  much 
in  vogue,   and  reminding   one  of    the    metallic 
brightness  of  birds  and  insects.     In  the  woods, 
the  cypress  is  a  singular  and  beautiful  feature. 
It   attains   to   a   great  age   and    immense   size. 
The  trunk  and  branches  of  an  old  cypress  are 
smooth  and  white  as  ivory,  while  its  light,  feath 
ery  foliage  is  of  the  most  dazzling  golden-green  ; 
and  rising,  as  it  often  does,  amid  clumps  of  dark 
varnished  evergreens, — bay  and   magnolia  and 
myrtle,  —  it  has  a  singular  and   beautiful  effect. 
The  long  swaying  draperies  of  the  gray  moss 
interpose   everywhere    their    wavering   outlines 
and  pearl  tints  amid  the  brightness  and  bloom 
of  the    forest,  giving  to   its    deep  recesses    the 
mystery  of  grottoes  hung  with  fanciful  vegeta 
ble  stalactites. 

The  palmetto-tree  appears  in  all  stages,  —  from 


THE  GRAND   TOUR   UP  RIVER.        253 

its  earliest  growth,  when  it  looks  like  a  fountain 
of  great,  green  fan-leaves  bursting  from  the 
earth,  to  its  perfect  shape,  when,  sixty  or  seventy 
feet  in  height,  it  rears  its  fan  crown  high  in  air. 
The  oldest  trees  may  be  known  by  a  perfectly 
smooth  trunk ;  all  traces  of  the  scaly  formation 
by  which  it  has  built  itself  up  in  ring  after  ring 
of  leaves  being  obliterated.  But  younger  trees, 
thirty  or  forty  feet  in  height,  often  show  a 
trunk  which  seems  to  present  a  regular  criss 
cross  of  basket-work,  —  the  remaining  scales 
from  whence  the  old  leaves  have  decayed  and 
dropped  away.  These  scaly  trunks  are  often 
full  of  ferns,  wild  flowers,  and  vines,  which  hang 
in  fantastic  draperies  down  their  sides,  and  form 
leafy  and  flowery  pillars.  The  palmetto-ham 
mocks,  as  they  are  called,  are  often  miles  in 
extent  along  the  banks  of  the  rivers.  The  tops 
of  the  palms  rise  up  round  in  the  distance  as  so 
many  hay-cocks,  and  seeming  to  rise  one  above 
another  far  as  the  eye  can  reach. 


254  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

We  have  never  been  so  fortunate  as  to  be 
able  to  explore  one  of  these  palmetto-groves. 
The  boat  sails  with  a  provoking  quickness  by 
many  a  scene  that  one  longs  to  dwell  upon, 
study,  and  investigate.  We  have  been  told, 
however,  by  hunters,  that  they  afford  admirable 
camping-ground,  being  generally  high  and  dry, 
with  a  flooring  of  clean  white  sand.  Their 
broad  leaves  are  a  perfect  protection  from  rain 
and  dew  ;  and  the  effect  of  the  glare  of  the  camp- 
fires  and  torch-lights  on  the  tall  pillars,  and  wav 
ing,  fan-like  canopy  overhead,  is  said  to  be  per 
fectly  magical.  The  most  unromantic  and  least 
impressible  speak  of  it  with  enthusiasm. 

In  going  up  the  river,  darkness  overtook  us 
shortly  after  leaving  Pilatka.  We  sat  in  a 
golden  twilight,  and  saw  the  shores  every 
moment  becoming  more  beautiful  ;  but  when 
the  twilight  faded,  and  there  was  no  moon,  we 
sought  the  repose  of  our  cabin.  It  was  sultry 


THE   GRAND    TOUR    UP  RIVER.        255 

as  August,  although  only  the  first  part  of  May  ; 
and  our  younger  and  sprightlier  members,  who 
were  on  the  less  breezy  side  of  the  boat,  after 
fruitlessly  trying  to  sleep,  arose  and  dressed 
themselves,  and  sat  all  night  on  deck. 

By  this  means  they  saw  a  sight  worth  seeing, 
and  one  which  we  should  have  watched  all  night 
to  see.  The  boat's  course  at  night  is  through 
narrows  of  the  river,  where  we  could  hear  the 
crashing  and  crackling  of  bushes  and  trees,  and 
sometimes  a  violent  thud,  as  the  boat,  in  turning 
a  winding,  struck  against  the  bank.  On  the 
forward  part  two  great  braziers  were  kept  filled 
with  blazing,  resinous  light-wood,  to  guide  the 
pilot  in  the  path  of  the  boat.  The  effect  of  this 
glare  of  red  light  as  the  steamer  passed  through 
the  palmetto  hummocks  and  moss-hung  grottoes 
of  the  forest  was  something  that  must  have 
been  indescribably  weird  and  beautiful ;  and  our 
young  friends  made  us  suitably  regret  that  our 


256  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

more  airy  sleeping-accommodations  had  lost  us 
this  experience. 

In  the  morning  we  woke  at  Enterprise,  hav 
ing  come  through  all  the  most  beautiful  and 
characteristic  part  of  the  way  by  night.  En 
terprise  is  some  hundred  and  thirty  miles 
south  of  our  dwelling-place  in  Mandarin  ;  and,  of 
course,  that  much  nearer  the  tropical  regions. 
We  had  planned  excursions,  explorations,  pic 
nics  in  the  woods,  and  a  visit  to  the  beautiful 
spring  in  the  neighborhood  ;  but  learned  with 
chagrin  that  the  boat  made  so  short  a  stay,  that 
none  of  these  things  were  possible.  The  only 
thing  that  appears  to  the  naked  eye  of  a  steam 
boat  traveller  in  Enterprise  is  a  large  hotel  down 
upon  the  landing,  said  by  those  who  have  tested 
it  to  be  one  of  the  best  kept  hotels  in  Florida. 
The  aspect  of  the  shore  just  there  is  no  way  pic 
turesque  or  inviting,  but  has  more  that  forlorn, 
ragged,  desolate  air  that  new  settlements  on  the 


THE   GRAND    TOUR    UP  RIVER.        2$? 

river  are  apt  to  have.  The  wild,  untouched 
banks  are  beautiful  ;  but  the  new  settlements 
generally  succeed  in  destroying  all  Nature's 
beauty,  and  give  you  only  leafless,  girdled  trees, 
blackened  stumps,  and  naked  white  sand,  in 
return. 

Turning  our  boat  homeward,  we  sailed  in 
clear  morning  light  back  through  the  charming 
scenery  which  we  had  slept  through  the  night 
before.  It  is  the  most  wild,  dream-like,  enchant 
ing  sail  conceivable.  The  river  sometimes  nar 
rows  so  that  the  boat  brushes  under  overhang 
ing  branches,  and  then  widens  into  beautiful  lakes 
dotted  with  wooded  islands.  Palmetto-hammocks, 
live-oak  groves,  cypress,  pine,  bay,  and  magnolia 
form  an  interchanging  picture ;  vines  hang  fes 
tooned  from  tree  to  tree  ;  wild  flowers  tempt  the 
eye  on  the  near  banks  ;  and  one  is  constantly 
longing  for  the  boat  to  delay  here  or  there  :  but 
on  goes  her  steady  course,  -the  pictured  scene 
17 


258  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

around  constantly  changing.  Every  now  and 
then  the  woods  break  away  for  a  little  space, 
and  one  sees  orange  and  banana  orchards,  and 
houses  evidently  newly  built.  At  many  points 
the  boat  landed,  and  put  off  kegs  of  nails,  hoes, 
ploughs,  provisions,  groceries.  Some  few  old 
plantations  were  passed,  whose  name  and  his 
tory  seemed  familiar  to  Madam  Rose  ;  but  by  far 
the  greater  number  were  new  settlements,  with 
orchards  of  quite  young  trees,  which  will  require 
three  or  four  more  years  to  bring  into  bearing. 

The  greater  number  of  fruit-orchards  and 
settlements  were  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
river,  which,  for  the  reasons  we  have  spoken  of, 
is  better  adapted  to  the  culture  of  fruit. 

One  annoyance  on  board  the  boat  was  the  con 
stant  and  pertinacious  firing  kept  up  by  that 
class  of  men  who  think  that  the  chief  end  of 
man  is  to  shoot  something.  Now,  we  can  put 
up  with  good  earnest  hunting  or  fishing  done 


THE  GRAND    TOUR   UP  RIVER.        259 

for  the  purpose  of  procuring  for  man  food,  or 
even  the  fur  and  feathers  that  hit  his  fancy 
and  taste. 

But  we  detest  indiscriminate  and  purposeless 
maiming  and  killing  of  happy  animals,  who  have 
but  one  life  to  live,  and  for  whom  the  agony  of 
broken  bones  or  torn  flesh  is  a  helpless,  hope 
less  pain,  unrelieved  by  any  of  the  resources 
which  enable  us  to  endure.  A  parcel  of  hulking 
fellows  sit  on  the  deck  of  a  boat,  and  pass  through 
the  sweetest  paradise  God  ever  made,  without  one 
idea  of  its  loveliness,  one  gentle,  sympathizing 
thought  of  the  animal  happiness  with  which  the 
Creator  has  filled  these  recesses.  All  the  way 
along  is  a  constant  fusillade  upon  every  living 
thing  that  shows  itself  on  the  bank.  Now  a  bird 
is  hit,  and  hangs,  head  downward,  with  a  broken 
wing  ;  and  a  coarse  laugh  choruses  the  deed. 
Now  an  alligator  is  struck ;  and  the  applause 
is  greater.  We  once  saw  a  harmless  young 


260  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

alligator,  whose  dying  struggles,  as  he  threw  out 
his  poor  little  black  paws  piteously  like  human 
hands,  seemed  to  be  vastly  diverting  to  these 
cultivated  individuals.  They  wanted  nothing  of 
him  except  to  see  how  he  would  act  when  he 
was  hit,  dying  agonies  are  so  very  amusing ! 

Now  and  then  these  sons  of  Nimrod  in  their 
zeal  put  in  peril  the  nerves,  if  not  lives,  of  passen 
gers.  One  such  actually  fired  at  an  alligator 
right  across  a  crowd  of  ladies,  many  of  them  in 
valids  ;  and  persisted  in  so  firing  a  second  time, 
after  having  been  requested  to  desist.  If  the 
object  were  merely  to  show  the  skill  of  the 
marksman,  why  not  practise  upon  inanimate 
objects?  An  old  log  looks  much  like  an  alli 
gator  :  why  not  practise  on  an  old  log  ?  It  re 
quires  as  much  skill  to  hit  a  branch,  as  the  bird 
singing  on  it :  why  not  practise  on  the  branch  ? 
But  no  :  it  must  be  something  that  enjoys  and 
can  suffer ;  something  that  loves  life,  and  must 


THE  GRAND    TOUR   UP  RIVER.        261 

lose  it.  Certainly  this  in  an  inherent  savagery 
difficult  to  account  for.  Killing  for  killing's 
sake  belongs  not  even  to  the  tiger.  The  tiger 
kills  for  food  ;  man,  for  amusement. 

At  evening  we  were  again  at  Pilatka  ;  when 
the  great  question  was  discussed,  Would  we,  or 
would  we  not,  take  the  tour  up  the  Okalewaha 
to  see  the  enchanted  wonders  of  the  Silver 
Spring !  The  Okalewaha  boat  lay  at  the  landing  ; 
and  we  went  to  look  at  it.  The  Okalewaha  is  a 
deep,  narrow  stream,  by  the  by,  emptying  into 
the  St.  John's,  with  a  course  as  crooked  as 
Apollo's  ram's  horn ;  and  a  boat  has  been 
constructed  for  the  express  purpose  of  this  pas 
sage. 

The  aspect  of  this  same  boat  on  a  hot  night 
was  not  inspiriting.  It  was  low,  long,  and  nar 
row  ;  its  sides  were  rubbed  glassy  smooth,  or 
torn  and  creased  by  the  friction  of  the  bushes  and 
trees  it  had  pushed  through.  It  was  without  glass 


262  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

windows,  —  which  would  be  of  no  use  in  such 
navigation, — and,  in  place  thereof,  furnished  with 
strong  shutters  to  close  the  air-holes.  We  looked 
at  this  same  thing  as  it  lay  like  a  gigantic  coffin 
in  the  twilight,  and  thought  even  the  Silver 
Spring  would  not  pay  for  being  immured  there, 
and  turned  away. 

A  more  inviting  project  was  to  step  into  a 
sail-boat,  and  be  taken  in  the  golden  twilight 
over  to  Col.  Harte's  orange-grove,  which  is  said 
—  with  reason,  we  believe  —  to  be  the  finest  in 
Florida. 

We  landed  in  the  twilight  in  this  grove  of  six 
hundred  beautiful  orange-trees  in  as  high  condi 
tion  as  the  best  culture  could  make  them.  The 
well-fed  orange-tree  is  known  by  the  glossy, 
deep  green  of  its  foliage,  as  a  declining  tree  is  by 
the  yellow  tinge  of  its  leaves.  These  trees  looked 
as  if  each  leaf,  if  broken,  would  spurt  with  juice. 
Piles  of  fish-guano  and  shell  banks,  prepared  as 


THE  GRAND  TOUR  UP  RIVER.        263 

top-dress  for  the  orchard,  were  lying  everywhere 
about,  mingling  not  agreeably  with  the  odor  of 
orange-blossoms.  We  thought  to  ourselves,  that, 
if  the  orange-orchard  must  be  fed  upon  putrefy 
ing  fish,  we  should  prefer  not  to  have  a  house 
in  it.  The  employee  who  has  charge  of  the  or 
chard  lives  in  a  densely-shaded  cottage  in  the 
edge  of  it.  A  large  fruit-house  has  recently 
been  built  there  ;  and-  the  experiments  of  Col. 
Harte  seem  to  demonstrate,  that,  even  if  there 
occur  severe  frosts  in  the  early  winter,  there  is 
no  sort  of  need,  therefore,  of  losing  the  orange- 
crop.  His  agent  showed  us  oranges  round  and 
fair  that  had  been  kept  three  months  in  moss 
in  this  fruit-house,  and  looking  as  fresh  and 
glossy  as  those  upon  the  trees.  This,  if  proved 
by  experience,  always  possible,  does  away  with 
the  only  uncertainty  relating  to  the  orange-crop. 
Undoubtedly  the  fruit  is  far  better  to  continue 
all  winter  on  the  trees,  and  be  gathered  from 


264  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

time  to  time  as  wanted,  as  has  always  been  the 
practice  in  Florida.  But,  with  fruit-houses  and 
moss,  it  will  be  possible,  in  case  of  a  threatened 
fall  of  temperature,  to  secure  the  crop.  The 
oranges  that  come  to  us  from  Malaga  and 
Sicily  are  green  as  grass  when  gathered  and 
packed,  and  ripen,  as  much  as  they  do  ripen,  on 
the  voyage  over.  We  should  suppose  the 
oranges  of  Florida  might  be  gathered  much 
nearer  ripe  in  the  fall,  ripen  in  the  house  or  on 
the  way,  and  still  be  far  better  than  any  from 
the  foreign  market.  On  this  point  fruit-grow 
ers  are  now  instituting  experiments,  which,  we 
trust,  will  make  this  delicious  crop  certain  as  it 
is  abundant. 

Sailing  back  across  the  water,  we  landed,  and 
were  conveyed  to  the  winter  country-seat  of  a 
Brooklyn  gentleman,  who  is  with  great  enthusi 
asm  cultivating  a  place  there.  It  was  almost 
dark  ;  and  we  could  only  hear  of  his  gardens  and 


THE  GRAND   TOUR   UP  RIVER.        26$ 

grounds  and  improvements,  not  see  them.  In 
the  morning,  before  the  boat  left  the  landing,  he 
took  us  a  hasty  drive  around  the  streets  of  the 
little  village.  It  is  an  unusually  pretty,  attrac 
tive  -  looking  place  for  a  Florida  settlement. 
One  reason  for  this  is,  that  the  streets  and 
vacant  lots  are  covered  with  a  fine  green  turf, 
which,  at  a  distance,  looks  like  our  New-England 
grass.  It  is  a  mixture  of  Bermuda  grass  with  a 
variety  of  herbage,  and  has  just  as  good  gen 
eral  effect  as  if  it  were  the  best  red-top. 

There  are  several  fine  residences  in  and  around 
Pilatka,  —  mostly  winter-seats  of  Northern  set 
tlers.  The  town  has  eight  stores,  which  do  a  busi 
ness  for  all  the  surrounding  country  for  miles.  It 
has  .two  large  hotels,  several  boarding-houses, 
two  churches,  two  steam  saw-mills,  and  is  the 
headquarters  for  the  steamboats  of  the  Upper 
St.  John's  and  its  tributaries.  Four  or  five  steam 
ers  from  different  quarters  are  often  stopping 


266  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

at  its  wharf  at  a  time.  "  The  Dictator "  and 
"  City  Point,"  from  Charleston,  run  to  this  place 
outside  by  the  ocean  passage,  and,  entering  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  John's,  stop  at  Jacksonville 
by  the  way.  The  "  Nick  King  "  and  "  Lizzie 
Baker,"  in  like  manner,  make  what  is  called  the 
inside  trip,  skimming  through  the  network  of 
islands  that  line  the  coast,  and  bringing  up  at  the 
same  points.  Then  there  are  the  river-lines 
continually  plying  between  Jacksonville  and  this 
place,  and  the  small  boats  that  run  weekly  to 
the  Ocklawaha :  all  these  make  Pilatka  a  busy, 
lively,  and  important  place. 

With  Pilatka  the  interest  of  our  return- 
voyage  finished.  With  Green -Cove  Springs, 
Magnolia,  Hibernia,  at  all  of  which  we  touched 
on  our  way  back,  we  were  already  familiar  ;  and 
the  best  sight  of  all  was  the  cottage  under  the 
oaks,  to  which  we  gladly  returned. 


OLD  CUDJO  AND  THE  ANGEL. 

HE  little  wharf  at  Mandarin  is  a  tiny 
abutment  into  the  great  blue  sea  of 
the  St.  John's  waters,  five  miles  in 
width.  The  opposite  shores  gleam  out  blue 
in  the  vanishing  distance  ;  and  the  small  wharf 
is  built  so  far  out,  that  one  feels  there  as  in 
a  boat  at  sea.  Here,  trundled  down  on  the 
truck  along  a  descending  tram-way,  come  the 
goods  which  at  this  point  await  shipment  on 

267 


268  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

some  of  the  many  steamboats  which  ply  back 
and  forth  upon  the  river  ;  and  here  are  landed 
by  almost  every  steamer  goods  and  chattels  for 
the  many  families  which  are  hidden  in  the  shad- 
dows  of  the  forests  that  clothe  the  river's  shore. 
In  sight  are  scarce  a  dozen  houses,  all  told  ;  but 
far  back,  for  a  radius  of  ten  or  fifteen  miles,  are 
scattered  farmhouses  whence  come  tributes  of 
produce  to  this  point.  Hundreds  of  barrels  of 
oranges,  boxes  of  tomatoes  and  early  vegetables, 
grapes,  peaches,  and  pomegranates,  here  pause 
on  their  way  to  the  Jacksonville  market. 

One  morning,  as  the  Professor  and  I  were  en 
joying  our  morning  stroll  on  the  little  wharf,  an 
unusual  sight  met  our  eye,  —  a  bale  of  cotton, 
long  and  large,  pressed  hard  and  solid  as  iron, 
and  done  up  and  sewed  in  a  wholly  workmanlike 
manner,  that  excited  our  surprise.  It  was  the 
first  time  since  we  had  been  in  Mandarin  —  a 
space  of  some  four  or  five  years  —  that  we  had 


OLD   CUDJO  AND   THE  ANGEL.       269 

ever  seen  a  bale  of  cotton  on  that  wharf.  Yet 
the  whole  soil  of  East  Florida  is  especially 
adapted  not  only  to  the  raising  of  cotton,  but  of 
the  peculiar,  long  staple  cotton  which  commands 
the  very  highest  market-price.  But  for  two  or 
three  years  past  the  annual  ravages  of  the  cot 
ton-worm  had  been  so  discouraging,  that  the  cul 
ture  of  cotton  had  been  abandoned  in  despair. 

Whence,  then,  had  come  that  most  artistic 
bale  of  cotton,  so  well  pressed,  so  trim  and  tidy, 
and  got  up  altogether  in  so  superior  a  style  ? 

Standing  by  it  on  the  wharf  was  an  aged 
negro,  misshapen,  and  almost  deformed.  He  was 
thin  and  bony,  and  his  head  and  beard  were  griz 
zled  with  age.  He  was  black  as  night  itself; 
and  but  for  a  glittering,  intellectual  eye,  he 
might  have  been  taken  for  a  big  baboon,  —  the 
missing  link  of  Darwin.  To  him  spoke  the  Pro 
fessor,  giving  a  punch  with  his  cane  upon  the 
well-packed,  solid  bale  :  — 


2/0  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

"  Why,  this  is  splendid  cotton  !  Where  did  it 
come  from  ?  Who  raised  it  ? " 

"  We  raise  it,  sah,  —  me  'n'  dis  yer  boy,"  point 
ing  to  a  middle-aged  black  man  beside  him  : 
"  we  raise  it." 

"  Where  ? " 

"  Oh  !  out  he'yr  a  piece." 

A  lounging  white  man,  never  wanting  on  a 
wharf,  here  interposed  :  — 

"  Oh  !  this  is  old  Cudjo.  He  lives  up  Juling- 
ton.  He's  an  honest  old  fellow." 

Now,  we  had  heard  of  this  settlement  up  Juling- 
ton  some  two  or  three  years  before.  A  party  of 
negroes  from  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  had 
been  induced  to  come  into  Florida,  and  take  up  a 
tract  of  government  land.  Some  white  man  in 
whom  they  all  put  confidence  had  undertaken  for 
them  the  task  of  getting  their  respective  allot 
ments  surveyed  and  entered  for  them,  so  that  they 
should  have  a  solid  basis  of  land  to  work  upon. 


OLD   CUD  JO  AND   THE  ANGEL.       2/1 

Here,  then,  they  settled  down  ;  and  finding,  acci 
dentally,  that  a  small  central  lot  was  not  enclosed 
in  any  of  the  allotments,  they  took  it  as  an  indica 
tion  that  there  was  to  be  their  church,  and  accord 
ingly  erected  there  a  prayer-booth,  where  they 
could  hold  those  weekly  prayer-meetings  which 
often  seem  with  the  negroes  to  take  the  place  of 
all  other  recreations.  The  neighboring  farmers 
were  not  particularly  well  disposed  towards  the 
little  colony.  The  native  Floridian  farmer  is  a 
quiet,  peaceable  being,  not  at  all  disposed  to  in 
fringe  the  rights  of  others,  and  mainly  anxious  for 
peace  and  quietness.  But  they  supposed  that  a 
stampede  of  negroes  from  Georgia  and  Carolina 
meant  trouble  for  them,  meant  depredations  upon 
their  cattle  and  poultry,  and  regarded  it  with  no 
friendly  eye ;  yet,  nevertheless,  they  made  no 
demonstration  against  it.  Under  these  circum 
stances,  the  new  colony  had  gone  to  work  with  un 
tiring  industry.  They  had  built  log-cabins  and 


2/2  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

barns  ;  they  had  split  rails,  and  fenced  in  their 
land  ;  they  had  planted  orange-trees  ;  they  had 
cleared  acres  of  the  scrub-palmetto  :  and  any  one 
that  ever  has  seen  what  it  is  to  clear  up  an  acre  of 
scrub-palmetto  will  best  appreciate,  the  meaning 
of  that  toil.  Only  those  black  men,  with  sinews  of 
steel  and  nerves  of  wire, — men  who  grow  stronger 
and  more  vigorous  under  those  burning  suns  that 
wither  the  white  men,  —  are  competent  to  the 
task. 

But  old  Cudjo  had  at  last  brought  his  land 
from  the  wild  embrace  of  the  snaky  scrub-palmetto 
to  the  point  of  bearing  a  bale  of  cotton  like  the 
one  on  the  wharf.  He  had  subdued  the  savage 
earth,  brought  her  under,  and  made  her  tributary 
to  his  will,  and  demonstrated  what  the  soil  of  East 
Florida  might,  could,  and  would  do,  the  cotton- 
worm  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

And  yet  this  morning  he  stood  by  his  cotton, 
drooping  and  dispossessed.  The  white  man  that 


OLD   CUDJO  AND    THE  ANGEL.       273 

had  engaged  to  take  up  land  for  these  colonists 
had  done  his  work  in  such  a  slovenly,  imperfect 
manner,  that  another  settler,  a  foreigner,  had  taken 
up  a  tract  which  passed  right  through  old  Cudjo's 
farm,  and  taken  the  land  on  which  he  had 
spent  four  years  of  hard  work,  —  taken  his  log- 
cabin  and-  barn  and  young  trees,  and  the  very 
piece  that  he  had  just  brought  to  bearing  that 
bale  of  cotton.  And  there  he  stood  by  it,  mourn 
ful  and  patient.  It  was  only  a  continuation  of 
what  he  had  always  experienced,  —  always  op 
pressed,  always  robbed  and  cheated.  Old  Cudjo 
was  making  the  best  of  it  in  trying  to  ship  his 
bale  of  cotton,  which  was  all  that  was  left  of  four 
years'  toil. 

"  What !  "  said  the  Professor  to  him,  "are  you 
the  old  man  that  has  been  turned  out  by  that 
foreigner  ? " 

"Yes,  sah  !  "  he  said,  his  little  black  eyes  kin 
dling,  and  quivering  from  head  to  foot  with  ex- 

*  ,8 


2/4  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

citement.  "He  take  ebry  t'ing,  ebry  t'ing, — 
my  house  I  built  myself,  my  fences,  and  more'n 
t'ree  t'ousand  rails  I  split  myself:  he  take  'em 
all ! " 

There  is  always  some  bitter  spot  in  a  great  loss 
that  is  sorer  than  the  rest.  Those  rails  evidently 
cut  Cudjo  to  the  heart.  The  "t'ree  t'ousand 
rails  "  kept  coming  in  in  his  narrative  as  the  utter 
and  unbearable  aggravation  of  injustice. 

"  I  split  'em  myself,  sah  ;  ebry  one,  t'ree  t'ou 
sand  rails  !  and  he  take  'em  all !  " 

"  And  won't  he  allow  you  any  thing  ?  " 

"  No,  sah  :  he  won't  'low  me  not'ing.  He  say, 
'  Get  along  wid  you !  don't  know  not'ing  'bout 
you  !  dis  yer  land  mine.'  I  tell  him,  *  You  don't 
know  old  Cudjo  ;  but  de  Lord  know  him  :  and 
by'm  by,  when  de  angel  Gabriel  come  and  put 
one  foot  on  de  sea,  and  t'odder  on  de  land,  and 
blow  de  trumpet,  he  blow  once  for  old  Cudjo ! 
You  mind  now  ! '  " 


OLD   CUDJO  AND    THE  ANGEL.       275 

This  was  not  merely  spoken,  but  acted.  The 
old  black  kindled,  and  stepped  off  in  pantomime. 
He  put,  as  it  were,  one  foot  on  the  sea,  and  the 
other  on  the  land ;  he  raised  his  cane  trumpet- 
wise  to  his  mouth.  It  was  all  as  vivid  as  reality 
to  him. 

None  of  the  images  of  the  Bible  are  more  fre 
quent,  favorite,  and  operative  among  the  black 
race  than  this.  You  hear  it  over  and  over  in  every 
prayer-meeting.  It  is  sung  in  wild  chorus  in 
many  a  "spiritual."  The  great  angel  Gabriel, 
the  trumpet,  the  mighty  pomp  of  a  last  judg 
ment,  has  been  the  appeal  of  thousands  of 
wronged,  crushed,  despairing  hearts  through  ages 
of  oppression.  Faith  in  God's  justice,  faith  in  a 
final  triumph  of  right  over  wrong,  —  a  practical 
faith,  —  such  had  been  the  attainment  of  this  poor, 
old,  deformed  black.  That  and  his  bale  of  cotton 
were  all  he  had  to  show  for  a  life's  labor.  He  had 
learned  two  things  in  his  world-lesson, — work  and 


276  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

faith.  He  had  learned  the  power  of  practical  in 
dustry  in  things  possible  to  man  :  he  had  learned 
the  sublimer  power  of  faith  in  God  for  things  im 
possible. 

• 

Well,  of  course  we  were  indignant  enough  about 
poor  old  Cudjo :  but  we  feared  that  the  distant 
appeal  of  the  angel,  and  the  last  trump,  was  all 
that  remained  to  him  ;  and,  to  our  lesser  faith, 
that  seemed  a  long  way  to  look  for  justice. 

But  redress  was  nearer  than  we  imagined.  Old 
Cudjo's  patient  industry  and  honest  work  had 
wrought  favor  among  his  white  neighbors.  He 
had  lived  down  the  prejudice  with  which  the  settle 
ment  had  first  been  regarded  ;  for  among  quiet, 
honest  people  like  the  Floridians,  it  is  quite  possi 
ble  to  live  down  prejudice.  A  neighboring  justice 
of  the  peace  happened  to  have  an  acquaintance  in 
Washington  from  this  very  district,  acquainted 
with  all  the  land  and  land-titles.  He  wrote  to  this 


OLD   CUDJO  AND    THE  ANGEL.       277 

man  an  account  of  the  case ;  and  he  interested 
himself  for  old  Cudjo.  He  went  to  the  land-office 
to  investigate  the  matter.  He  found,  that,  in  both 
cases,  certain  formalities  necessary  to  constitute  a 
legal  entrance  had  been  omitted  ;  and  he  fulfilled 
for  old  Cudjo  these  formalities,  thus  settling  his 
title;  and,  moreover,  he  sent  legal  papers  by 
which  the  sheriff  of  the  county  was  enabled  to  do 
him  justice :  and  so  old  Cudjo  was  re-instated  in 
his  rights. 

The  Professor  met  him,  sparkling  and  jubilant, 
on  the  wharf  once  more. 

"  Well,  Cudjo,  '  de  angel '  blew  for  you  quicker 
than  you  expected." 

He  laughed  all  over.  "  Ye',  haw,  haw  !  Yes, 
massa."  Then,  with  his  usual  histrionic  vigor,  he 
acted  over  the  scene.  "  De  sheriff,  he  come  down 
dere.  He  tell  dat  man,  '  You  go  right  off  he'yr. 
Don't  you  touch  none  dem  rails.  Don't  you  take 
one  chip,  —  not  one  chip.  Don't  you  take '  — 
Haw,  haw,  haw  !  "  Then  he  added,  — 


2/8  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

"  He  come  to  me,  sah  :  he  say,  '  Cudjo,  what 
you  take  for  your  land  ? '  He  say  he  gib  me  two 
hunder  dollars.  I  tell  him,  '  Dat  too  cheap;  dat 
all  too  cheap.'  He  say,  '  Cudjo,  what  will  you 
take  ? '  I  say,  '  I  take  ten  t'ousand  million  dol 
lars  !  dat's  what  I  take.'  Haw,  haw,  haw  !  " 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH. 

'HO  shall  do  the  work  for  us  ?  is  the 
inquiry  in  this  new  State,  where  there 
are  marshes  to  be  drained,  forests  to 
be  cut  down,  palmetto-plains  to  be  grubbed  up, 
and  all  under  the  torrid  heats  of  a  tropical  sun. 

"  Chinese,"  say  some  ;  "  Swedes,"  say  others  ; 
"  Germans,"  others. 

But  let  us  look  at  the  facts  before  our  face  and 
eyes. 

279 


280  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

The  thermometer,  for  these  three  days  past, 
has  risen  over  ninety  every  day.  No  white 
man  that  we  know  of  dares  stay  in  the  fields 
later  than  ten  o'clock  :  then  he  retires  under 
shade  to  take  some  other  and  less-exposing 
work.  The  fine  white  sand  is  blistering  hot : 
one  might  fancy  that  an  egg  would  cook,  as  on 
Mt.  Vesuvius,  by  simply  burying  it  in  the  sand. 
Yet  the  black  laborers  whom  we  leave  in  the 
field  pursue  their  toil,  if  any  thing,  more  ac 
tively,  more  cheerfully,  than  during  the  cooler 

• 

months.  The  sun  awakes  all  their  vigor  and 
all  their  boundless  jollity.  When  their  noon 
ing  time  comes,  they  sit  <5own,  not  in  the  shade, 
but  in  some  good  hot  place  in  the  sand,  and 
eat  their  lunch,,  and  then  stretch  out,  hot  and 
comfortable,  to  take  their  noon  siesta  with  the 
full  glare  of  the  sun  upon  them.  Down  in  the 
swamp-land  near  our  house  we  have  watched 
old  Simon  as  from  hour  to  hour  he  drove  his 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  281 

wheelbarrow,  heavy  with  blocks  of  muck,  up  a' 
steep  bank,  and  deposited  it.  "  Why,  Simon  ! "  we 
say  :  "  how  can  you  work  so  this  hot  weather  ? " 

The  question  provokes  an  explosion  of  laugh 
ter.  "  Yah,  hah,  ho,  ho,  ho,  misse  !  It  be  hot ; 
dat  so  :  ho,  ho,  ho  !  " 

"  How  can  you  work  so  ?  I  can't  even  think 
how  you  can  do  such  hard  work  under  such 
a  sun." 

"  Dat  so :  ho,  ho  !  Ladies  can't ;  no,  dey  can't, 
bless  you,  ma'am  ! "  And  Simon  trundles  off  with 
his  barrow,  chuckling  in  his  might ;  comes  up  with 
another  load,  throws  it  down,  and  chuckles 
again.  A  little  laugh  goes  a  great  way  with 
Simon  ;  for  a  boiling  spring  of  animal  content  is 
ever  welling  up  within. 

One  tremendously  hot  day,  we  remember  our 
steamer  stopping  at  Fernandina.  Owing  to  the 
state  of  the  tide,  the  wharf  was  eight  or  ten  feet 
above  the  boat ;  and  the  plank  made  a  steep  in- 


282     ..  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

clined  plane,  down  which  a  mountain  of  multi 
farious  freight  was  to  be  shipped  on  our  boat. 
A  gang  of  negroes,  great,  brawny,  muscular  fel 
lows,  seemed  to  make  a  perfect  frolic  of  this  job, 
which,  under  such  a  sun,  would  have  threatened 
sunstroke  to  any  white  man.  How  they  ran  and 
shouted  and  jabbered,  and  sweated  their  shirts 
through,  as  one  after  another  received  on  their 
shoulders  great  bags  of  cotton-seed,  or  boxes 
and  bales,  and  ran  down  the  steep  plane  with 
them  into  the  boat !  At  last  a  low,  squat  giant 
of  a  fellow,  with  the  limbs  and  muscles  of  a  great 
dray-horse,  placed  himself  in  front  of  a  large 
truck,  and  made  his  fellows  pile  it  high  with 
cotton-bags  ;  then,  holding  back  with  a  prodi<- 
gious  force,  he  took  the  load  steadily  down  the 
steep  plane  till  within  a  little  of  the  bottom, 
when  he  dashed  suddenly  forward,  and  landed 
it  half  across  the  boat.  This  feat  of  gigantic 
strength  he  repeated  again  and  again,  running  up 


THE  LABORERS  OF   THE  SOUTH.     283 

i 

each  time  apparently  as  fresh  as  if  nothing  had 
happened,  shouting,  laughing,  drinking  quarts  of 
water,  and  sweating  like  a  river-god.  Never  was 
harder  work  done  in  a  more  jolly  spirit. 

Now,  when  one  sees  such  sights  as  these,  one 
may  be  pardoned  for  thinking  that  the  negro  is 
the  natural  laborer  of  tropical  regions.  He  is 
immensely  strong  ;  he  thrives  and  flourishes 
physically  under  a  temperature  that  exposes 
a  white  man  to  disease  and  death. 

The  malaria]  fevers  that  bear  so  hard  on  the 
white  race  have  far  less  effect  on  the  negro : 
it  is  rare  that  they  have  what  are  called  here 
the  "shakes;"  and  they  increase  and  mul 
tiply,  and  bear  healthy  children,  in  situations 
where  the  white  race  deteriorate  and  grow 
sickly. 

On  this  point  we  had  an  interesting  conversa 
tion  with  a  captain  employed  in  the  Government 
Coast  Survey.  The  duties  of  this  survey  involve 


284  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

much  hard  labor,  exposure  to  the  fiercest  ex 
tremes  of  tropical  temperature,  and  sojourning 
and  travelling  in  swamps  and  lagoons,  often 
most  deadly  to  the  white  race.  For  this  reason, 
he  manned  his  vessel  with  a  crew  composed  en 
tirely  of  negroes  ;  and  he  informed  us  that  the 
result  had  been  perfectly  satisfactory.  The 
negro  constitution  enabled  them  to  undergo 
with  less  suffering  and  danger  the  severe  ex 
posure  and  toils  of  the  enterprise  ;  and  the 
gayety  and  good  nature  which  belonged  to  the' 
race  made  their  toils  seem  to  sit  lighter  upon 
them  than  upon  a  given  number  of  white  men. 
He  had  known  them,  after  a  day  of  heavy  expo 
sure,  travelling  through  mud  and  swamps,  and 
cutting  saw-grass,  which  wounds  like  a  knife,  to 
sit  down  at  evening,  and  sing  songs  and  play  on 
the  banjo,  laugh  and  tell  stories,  in  the  very  best 
of  spirits.  He  furthermore  valued  them  for  their 
docility,  and  perfect  subjection  to  discipline. 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  285 

He  announced  strict  rules,  forbidding  all  drunk 
enness  and  profanity  ;  and  he  never  found  a  diffi 
culty  in  enforcing  these  rules :  their  obedience 
and  submission  were  perfect.  When  this  gentle 
man  was  laid  up  with  an  attack  of  fever  in  St. 
Augustine,  his  room  was  beset  by  anxious  negro 
mammies,  relations  of  his  men,  bringing  fruits, 
flowers,  and  delicacies  of  their  compounding  for 
"  the  captain." 

Those  who  understand  and  know  how  to 
treat  the  negroes  seldom  have  reason  to  com 
plain  of  their  ingratitude. 

But  it  is  said,  by  Northern  men  who  come 
down  with  Northern  habits  of  labor,  that  the 
negro  is  inefficient  as  a  laborer. 

It  is  to  be  conceded  that  the  influence  of 
climate  and  constitution,  and  the  past  benumb 
ing  influences  of  slavery,  do  make  the  habits  of 
Southern  laborers  very  different  from  the  habits 
of  Northern  men,  accustomed,  by  the  shortness 


286  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

of  summer  and  the  length  of  winter,  to  set  the 
utmost  value  on  their  working-time. 

In  the  South,  where  growth  goes  on  all  the 
year  round,  there  really  is  no  need  of  that  in 
tense,  driving  energy  and  vigilance  in  the  use 
of  time  that  are  needed  in  the  short  summers  of 
the  North  :  an  equal  amount  can  be  done  with 
less  labor. 

But  the  Northern  man  when  he  first  arrives, 
before  he  has  proved  the  climate,  looks  with  im 
patient  scorn  on  what  seems  to  him  the  slow, 
shilly-shally  style  in  which  both  black  and  white 
move  on.  It  takes  an  attack  of  malarial  fever 
or  two  to  teach  him  that  he  cannot  labor  the 
day  through  under  a  tropical  sun  as  he  can  in 
the  mountains  of  New  Hampshire.  After  a 
shake  or  two  of  this  kind,  he  comes  to  be 
thankful  if  he  can  hire  Cudjo  or  Pompey  to 
plough  and  hoe  in  his  fields  through  the  blazing 
hours,  even  though  they  do  not  plough  and  hoe 
with  all  the  alacrity  of  Northern  farmers. 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.    287 

It  is  also  well  understood,  that,  in  taking 
negro  laborers,  we  have  to  take  men  and  women 
who  have  been  educated  under  a  system  the 
very  worst  possible  for  making  good,  efficient, 
careful,  or  honest  laborers.  Take  any  set  of 
white  men,  and  put  them  for  two  or  three  gen 
erations  under  the  same  system  of  work  without 
wages,  forbid  them  legal  marriage  and  secure 
family  ties,  and  we  will  venture  to  predict  that 
they  would  come  out  of  the  ordeal  a  much  worse 
set  than  the  Southern  laborers  are. 

We  have  had  in  our  own  personal  experience 
pretty  large  opportunities  of  observation.  Im 
mediately  after  the  war,  two  young  New-England 
men  hired  the  Mackintosh  Plantation,  opposite 
to  Mandarin,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  St.  John's 
River.  It  was,  in  old  times,  the  model  plantation 
of  Florida,  employing  seven  hundred  negroes, 
raising  sugar,  rice,  Sea-Island  cotton.  There 
was  upon  it  a  whole  village  of  well-built,  com- 


288  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

fortable   negro   houses,  —  as  well  built  and  com 
fortable  as  those  of  any  of  the  white  small  farmers 
around.     There  was  a  planter's  house  ;  a  school- 
house,  with  chambers  for  the  accommodation  of  a 
teacher,  who  was  to  instruct  the  planter's  chil 
dren.       There   were    barns,   and    a    cotton-gin 
and  storehouse,  a  sugar-house,  a  milk  and  dairy 
house,  an  oven,  and  a  kitchen  ;    each   separate 
buildings.     There  were  some  two  or  three  hun 
dred  acres  of  cleared  land,  fit  for  the  raising  of 
cotton.     This  whole  estate  had  been   hired  by 
these  young  men   on   the   principle   of  sharing 
half  the  profits  with  the  owner.     After  they  had 
carried  it  on  one  year,  some  near  relatives  be 
came    partners ;    and   then    we   were   frequent 
visitors   there.     About   thirty  laboring  families 
were  employed   upon   the   place.     These  were 
from  different,  more   northern  States,  who  had 
drifted  downward  after  the  Emancipation  Act  to 
try  the  new  luxury  of  being  free  to  choose  their 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  289 

own  situation,  and  seek  their  own  fortune. 
Some  were  from  Georgia,  some  from  South  and 
some  from  North  Carolina,  and  some  from  New 
Orleans ;  in  fact,  the  debris  of  slavery,  washed 
together  in  the  tide  of  emancipation.  Such  as 
they  were,  they  were  a  fair  specimen  of  the 
Southern  negro  as  slavery  had  made  and  left  him. 
The  system  pursued  with  them  was  not  either 
patronizing  or  sentimental.  The  object  was  to 
put  them  at  once  on  the  ground  of  free  white 
men  and  women,  and  to  make  their  labor  profit 
able  to  their  employers.  They  were  taught 
the  nature  of  a  contract  ;  and  their  agreements 
with  their  employers  were  all  drawn  up  in  writ 
ing,  and  explained  to  them.  The  terms  were  a 
certain  monthly  sum  of  money,  rations  for  the 
month,  rent  of  cottage,  and  privileges  of  milk 
from  the  dairy.  One  of  the  most  efficient  and 
intelligent  was  appointed  to  be  foreman  of  the 
plantation  ;  and  he  performed  the  work  of  old 
19 


290  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

performed  by  a  driver.  He  divided  the  hands 
into  gangs  ;  appointed  their  places  in  the  field  ; 
settled  any  difficulties  between  them  ;  and,  in  fact, 
was  an  overseer  of  the  detail.  Like  all  unedu 
cated  peopfe,  the  negroes  are  great  conservatives. 
They  clung  to  the  old  ways  of  working,  —  to  the 
gang,  the  driver,  and  the  old  field  arrangements, 
—  even  where  one  would  have  thought  another 
course  easier  and  wiser. 

In  the  dim  gray  of  the  morning,  Mose  blew 
his  horn ;  and  all  turned  out  and  worked  their 
two  or  three  hours  without  breakfast,  and  then 
came  back  to  their  cabins  to  have  corn-cake 
made,  and  pork  fried,  and  breakfast  prepared. 
We  suggested  that  the  New-England  manner 
of  an  early  breakfast  would  be  more  to  the  pur 
pose  ;  but  were  met  by  the  difficulty,  nay,  almost 
impossibility,  of  making  the  negroes  work  in 
any  but  the  routine  to  which  they  had  been 
accustomed.  But  in  this  routine  they  worked 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  291 

honestly,  cheerfully,  and  with  a  will.  They  had 
the  fruits  of  their  labors  constantly  in  hand, 
in  the  form  either  of  rations  or  wages  ;  and  there 
appeared  to  be  much  sober  content  therewith. 

On  inquiry,  it  was  found,  that,  though  living  in 
all  respectability  in  families,  the  parties  were, 
many  of  them,  not  legally  married  ;  and  an  at 
tempt  was  made  to  induce  them  to  enter  into 
holy  orders.  But  the  men  seemed  to  regard 
this  as  the  imposing  of  a  yoke  beyond  what  they 
could  bear.  Mose  said  he  had  one  wife  in 
Virginny,  and  one  in  Carliny ;  and  how  did  he 
know  which  of 'em  he  should  like  best?  Mandy, 
on  the  female  side,  objected  that  she  could  not 
be  married  yet  for  want  of  a  white  lace  veil, 
which  she  seemed  to  consider  essential  to  the 
ceremony.  The  survey  of  Mandy  in  her  stuff 
gown  and  cow-hide  boots,  with  her  man's  hat 
on,  following  the  mule  with  the  plough,  brought 
rather  ludicrous  emotions  in  connection  with 
this  want  of  a  white  veil. 


2Q2      .  PA  LME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

Nevertheless,  the  legal  marriages  were  few 
among  them.  They  lived  faithfully  in  their  re 
spective  family  relations  ;  and  they  did  their 
work,  on  the  whole,  effectively  and  cheerfully. 
Their  only  amusement,  after  working  all  day, 
seemed  to  be  getting  together,  and  holding 
singing  and  prayer  meetings,  which  they  often 
did  to  a  late  hour  of  the  night.  We  used  to  sit 
and  hear  them,  after  ten  or  eleven  o'clock,  sing 
ing  and  praying  and  exhorting  with  the  greatest 
apparent  fervor.  There  were  one  or  two  of 
what  are  called  preachers  among  them,  —  men 
with  a  natural  talent  for  stringing  words  to 
gether,  and  with  fine  voices.  As  a  matter  of 
curiosity,  we  once  sat  outside,  when  one  of  these 
meetings  was  going  on,  to  hear  what  it  was  like. 

The  exhortation  seemed  to  consist  in  a  string 
of  solemn-sounding  words  and  phrases,  images 
borrowed  from  Scripture,  scraps  of  hymns,  and 
now  and  then  a  morsel  that  seemed  like  a 


THE  LABORERS  \OF  THE  SOUTH.  293 

Roman-Catholic  tradition  about  the  Virgin 
Mary  and  Jesus.  The  most  prominent  image, 
however,  was  that  of  the  angel,  and  the  blowing 
of  the  last  trumpet.  At  intervals,  amid  the  fly 
ing  cloud  of  images  and  words,  came  round 
something  about  Gabriel  and  the  last  trump,  some 
what  as  follows  :  "  And  He  will  say, '  Gabriel,  Ga 
briel,  blow  your  trump :  take  it  cool  and  easy, 
cool  and  easy,  Gabriel :  dey's  all  bound  for  to 
come.' " 

This  idea  of  taking  even  the  blowing  of  the 
last  trump  cool  and  easy  seemed  to  be  so  like 
the  general  negro  style  of  attending  to  things, 
that  it  struck  me  as  quite  refreshing.  As  to 
singing,  the  most  doleful  words  with  the  most 
lugubrious  melodies  seemed  to  be  in  favor. 

"  Hark  !  from  the  tombs  a  doleful  sound," 

was  a  special  favorite.  With  eyes  shut,  and 
mouth  open,  they  would  pour  out  a  perfect 


2Q4  PA  LMETTO-LEA  VES. 

storm  of  minor-keyed  melody  on  poor  old  Dr. 
Watts's  hymn,  mispronouncing  every  word,  till 
the  old  doctor  himself  could  not  have  told  whe 
ther  they  were  singing  English  or  Timbuctoo. 

Yet  all  this  was  done  with  a  fervor  and  earnest 
solemnity  that  seemed  to  show  that  they  found 
something  in  it,  whether  we  could  or  not :  who 
shall  say  ?  A  good  old  mammy  we  used  to 
know  found  great  refreshment  in  a  hymn,  the 
chorus  of  which  was,  — 

"  Bust  the  bonds  of  dust  and  thunder ; 
Bring  salvation  from  on  high." 

Undoubtedly  the  words  suggested  to  her  very 
different  ideas  from  what  they  did  to  us  ;  for  she 
obstinately  refused  to  have  them  exchanged  for 
good  English.  But  when  the  enlightened,  wise, 
liberal,  and  refined  for  generations  have  found 
edification  and  spiritual  profit  from  a  service 
chanted  in  an  unknown  tongue,  who  shall  say 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  295 

that  the  poor  negroes  of  our  plantation  did  not 
derive  real  spiritual  benefit  from  their  night 
services  ?  It  was  at  least  an  aspiration,  a 
reaching  and  longing  for  something  above  ani 
mal  and  physical  good,  a  recognition  of  God  and 
immortality,  and  a  future  beyond  this  earth, 
vague  and  indefinite  though  it  were. 

As  to  the  women,  they  were  all  of  the  class 
born  and  bred  as  field-hands.  They  were  many 
of  them  as  strong  as  men,  could  plough  and 
chop  and  cleave  with  the  best,  and  were  held 
to  be  among  the  best  field-laborers  ;  but,  in  all 
household  affairs,  they  were  as  rough  and  un 
skilled  as  might  be  expected.  To  mix  meal, 
water,  and  salt  into  a  hoe-cake,  and  to  fry  salt 
pork  or  ham  or  chicken,  was  the  extent  of  their 
knowledge  of  cooking ;  and  as  to  sewing,  it  is 
a  fortunate  thing  that  the  mild  climate  requires 
very  slight  covering.  All  of  them  practised, 
rudely,  cutting,  fitting,  and  making  of  garments 


296  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

to  cover  their  children  ;  but  we  could  see  how 
hard  was  their  task,  after  working  all  day  in  the 
field,  to  come  home  and  get  the  meals,  and  then, 
after  that,  have  the  family  sewing  to  do.  In  our 
view,  woman  never  was  made  to  do  the  work 
which  supports  the  family ;  and,  if  she  do  it,  the 
family  suffers  more  for  want  of  the  mother's 
vitality  expended  in  work  than  it  gains  in  the 
wages  she  receives.  Some  of  the  brightest  and 
most  intelligent  negro  men  begin  to  see  this, 
and  to  remove  their  wives  from  field-labor  ;  but 
on  the  plantation,  as  we  saw  it,  the  absence  of 
the  mother  all  day  from  home  was  the  destruc 
tion  of  any  home-life  or  improvement. 

Yet,  with  all  this,  the  poor  things,  many  of 
them,  showed  a  most  affecting  eagerness  to  be 
taught  to  read  and  write.  We  carried  down 
and  distributed  a  stock  of  spelling-books  among 
them,  which  they  eagerly  accepted,  and  treasured 
with  a  sort  of  superstitious  veneration ;  and 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  297 

Sundays,  and  evenings  after  work,  certain  of 
them  would  appear  with  them  in  hand,  and 
earnestly  beg  to  be  taught.  Alas  !  we  never  felt 
so  truly  what  the  loss  and  wrong  is  of  being  de 
prived  of  early  education  as  when  we  saw  how 
hard,  how  almost  hopeless,  is  the  task  of  acquisi 
tion  in  mature  life.  When  we  saw  the  sweat 
start  upon  these  black  faces,  as  our  pupils 
puzzled  and  blundered  over  the  strange  cabalis 
tic  forms  of  the  letters,  we  felt  a  discouraged 
pity.  What  a  dreadful  piece  of  work  the  read 
ing  of  the  English  language  is  !  Which  of  us 
would  not  be  discouraged  beginning  the  alpha 
bet  at  forty  ? 

After  we  left,  the  same  scholars  were  wont  to 
surround  one  of  the  remaining  ladies.  Some 
times  the  evening  would  be  so  hot  and  op 
pressive,  she  would  beg  to  be  excused.  "  O 
misse,  but  two  of  us  will  fan  you  all  the  time  ! " 
And  "  misse  "  could  not  but  yield  to  the  plea. 


298  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

One  of  the  most  dreaded  characters  on  the 
place  was  the  dairy-woman  and  cook  Minnah. 
She  had  been  a  field-hand  in  North  Carolina, 
and  worked  at  cutting  down  trees,  grubbing 
land,  and  mauling  rails.  She  was  a  tall,  lank, 
powerfully-built  woman,  with  a  pair  of  arms  like 
windmill-sails,  and  a  tongue  that  never  hesitated 
to  speak  her  mind  to  high  or  low.  Democracy 
never  assumes  a  more  rampant  form  than  in 
some  of  these  old  negresses,  who  would  say 
their  screed  to  the  king  on  his  throne,  if  they 
died  for  it  the  next  minute.  Accordingly,  Min- 
nah's  back  was  all  marked  and  scored  with  the 
tyrant's  answers  to  free  speech.  Her  old  mas 
ter  was  accustomed  to  reply  to  her  unpleasant 
observations  by  stretching  her  over  a  log,  stak 
ing  down  her  hands  and  feet,  and  flaying  her 
alive,  as  a  most  convincing  style  of  argument. 
For  all  that,  Minnah  was  neither  broken  nor 
humbled :  she  still  asserted  her  rights  as  a 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  299 

human  being  to  talk  to  any  other  human  being 
as  seemed  to  her  good  and  proper ;  and  many 
an  amusing  specimen  of  this  she  gave  us.  Min- 
nah  had  learned  to  do  up  gentlemen's  shirts  pass 
ably,  to  iron  and  to  cook  after  a  certain  fashion, 
to  make  butter,  and  do  some  other  household 
tasks  :  and  so,  before  the  wives  of  the  gentlemen 
arrived  on  the  place,  she  had  been  selected  as 
a  sort  of  general  housekeeper  and  manager  in 
doors ;  and,  as  we  arrived  on  the  ground  first, 
we  found  Minnah  in  full  command,  —  the  only 
female  presence  in  the  house. 

It  was  at  the  close  of  a   day  in   May,  corre 
sponding  to  our  August,  that  Mrs.  F and 

baby  and  myself,  with  sundry  bales  of  furniture 
and  household  stuff,  arrived  at  the  place.  We 
dropped  down  in  a  lazy  little  sail-boat  which  had 
lain  half  the  day  becalmed,  with  the  blue,  hazy 
shores  on  either  side  melting  into  indefinite 
distance,  and  cast  anchor  far  out  in  the  stream  ; 


300  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

and  had  to  be  rowed  in  a  smaller  boat  to  the 
long  wharf  that  stretched  far  out  into  the  waters. 
Thence,  in  the  thickening  twilight,  we  ascended, 
passed  through  the  belt  of  forest-trees  that  over 
hung  the  shore,  and  crossed  the  wide  fields  of 
fine  white  sand  devoted  to  the  raising  of  cotton. 
The  planter's  house  was  a  one-story  cottage,  far 
in  the  distance,  rising  up  under  the  shelter  of 
a  lofty  tuft  of  Spanish  oaks. 

Never  shall  we  forget  the  impression  of 
weird  and  almost  ludicrous  dreariness  which 
took  possession  of  us  as  Mrs.  F and  my 
self  sat  down  in  the  wide  veranda  of  the  one- 
story  cottage  to  wait  for  the  gentlemen,  who 
had  gone  down  to  assist  in  landing  our  trunks 
and  furniture.  The  black  laborers  were  coming 
up  from  the  field ;  and,  as  one  and  another 
passed  by,  they  seemed  blacker,  stranger,  and 
more  dismal,  than  any  thing  we  had  ever  seen. 

The  women  wore  men's  hats  and  boots,  and 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.    301 

had  the  gait  and  stride  of  men ;  but  now  and 
then  an  old  hooped  petticoat,  or  some  cast-off, 
thin,  bedraggled  garment  that  had  once  been 
fine,  told  the  tale  of  sex,  and  had  a  wofully 
funny  effect. 

As  we  sat  waiting,  Minnah  loomed  up  upon 
us  in  the  twilight  veranda  like  a  gaunt 
Libyan  sibyl,  walking  round  and  round,  sur 
veying  us  with  apparent  curiosity,  .and  respond 
ing  to  all  our  inquiries  as  to  who  and  what  she 
was  by  a  peculiarly  uncanny  chuckle.  It  ap 
peared  to  amuse  her  extremely  that  Mr. 

F had  gone  off  and  left  the  pantry  locked 

up,  so  that  she  could  not  get  us  any  supper ;  we 
being  faint  and  almost  famished  with  our  day's 
sail.  The  sight  of  a  white  baby  dressed  in 
delicate  white  robes,  with  lace  and  embroidery, 
also  appeared  greatly  to  excite  her;  and  she 
stalked  round  and  round  with  a  curious  simmer 
of  giggle,  appearing  and  disappearing  at  un- 


302  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

certain  intervals,  like  a  black  sprite,  during  the 
mortal  hour  and  a  half  that  it  cost  our  friends  to 
land  the  goods  from  the  vessel. 

After  a  while,  some  supper  was  got  for  us  in 
a  wide,  desolate  apartment,  fitted  up  with  a 
small  cooking-stove  in  the  corner. 

Never  shall  we  forget  the  experience  of  en 
deavoring  to  improvise  a  corn-cake  the  next 
morning  for  breakfast. 

We  went  into  the  room,  and  found  the  table 
standing  just  as  we  had  left  it  the  night  before,  — 
not  a  dish  washed,  not  a  thing  done  in  the  way 
of  clearing.  On  inquiry  for  Minnah,  she  was 
gone  out  to  milking.  It  appeared  that  there 
were  sixteen  cows  to  be  milked  before  her  re 
turn.  A  little  colored  girl  stood  ready  to  wait 
on  us  with  ample  good  nature. 

"  Lizzie,"  said  we,  "  have  you  corn-meal  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes'm  !  "  and  she  brought  it  just  as  the 
corn  had  been  ground,  with  the  "bran  unsifted. 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.    303 

"  A  sieve,  Lizzie." 

It  was  brought. 

"  A  clean  pan,  Lizzie.    Quick !  9> 

"  All  right,"  said  Lizzie :  "  let  me  get  a  pail  of 
water."  The  water  was  to  be  drawn  from  a  deep 
well  in  the  yard.  That  done,  Lizzie  took  a  pan, 
went  out  the  door,  produced  a  small  bit  of  rag, 
and  rinsed  the  pan,  dashing  the  contents  upon 
the  sand. 

"  Lizzie,  haven't  you  any  dish-cloth  ? " 

"  No'm." 

"  No  towels  ? " 

"  No'm." 

"  Do  you  always  wash  dishes  this  way  ?  " 

"Yes'm." 

"  Well,  then,  wash  this  spoon  and  these  two 
bake-pans." 

Lizzie,  good-natured  and  zealous  as  the  day 
is  long,  bent  over  her  pail,  and  slopped  and 
scrubbed  with  her  bit  of  rag. 


304  PALMETTO-LEAVES. 

"  Now  for  a  pan  of  sour  milk,"  said  we. 

It  was  brought,  with  saleratus  and  other  con 
diments  ;  and  the  cake  was  made. 

But,  on  examination,  the  flues  of  the  little 
cooking-stove  were  so  choked  with  the  resinous 
soot  of  the  "  light-wood  "  which  had  been  used 
in  it,  that  it  would  scarcely  draw  at  all ;  and 
the  baking  did  not  progress  as  in  our  nice 
Stuart  stove  in  our  Northern  home.  Still  the 
whole  experience  was  so  weirdly  original,  that, 
considering  this  was  only  a  picnic  excursion,  we 
rather  enjoyed  it. 

When  we  came  to  unpack  china  and  crockery 
and  carpets,  bureau  and  bedsteads  and  dressing- 
glass,  Minnah's  excitement  knew  no  bounds. 
Evidently  she  considered  these  articles  (cast-off 
remnants  of  our  Northern  home)  as  the  height 
of  splendor. 

When  our  upper  chamber  was  matted,  and 
furnished  with  white  curtains  and  shades,  and 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  305 

bed,  chairs,  and  dressing-glass,  Minnah  came  in 
to  look ;  and  her  delight  was  boundless. 

"Dear  me!  O  Lord,  O  Lord!"  she  ex 
claimed,  turning  round  and  round.  "  Dese  yer 
Northern  ladies  —  they  hes  every  thing,  and 
they  does  every  thing  !  " 

More  especially  was  she  taken  with  the 
pictures  we  hung  on  the  walls.  Before  one  of 
these  (Raphael's  Madonna  of  the  Veil)  Minnah 
knelt  down  in  a  kind  of  ecstatic  trance,  and 
thus  delivered  herself:  — 

"  O  good  Lord !  if  there  ain't  de  Good  Man 
when  he  was  a  baby !  How  harmless  he  lies 
there !  so  innocent !  And  here  we  be,  we  wicked 
sinners,  turning  our  backs  on  him,  and  going  to 
the  Old  Boy.  O  Lord,  O  Lord  !  we  ought  to 
be  better  than  we  be  :  we  sartin  ought." 

This  invocation  came  forth  with  streaming 
tears  in  the  most  natural  way  in  the  world  ;  and 
Minnah  seemed,  for  the  time  being,  perfectly 


306  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

subdued.  It  is  only  one  of  many  instances 
we  have  seen  of  the  overpowering  influence  of 
works  of  art  on  the  impressible  nervous  system 
of  the  negro. 

But  it  is  one  thing  to  have  an  amusing  and 
picturesque  specimen  of  a  human  being,  as 
Minnah  certainly  was,  and  another  to  make  one 
useful  in  the  traces  of  domestic  life. 

As  the  first  white  ladies  upon  the  ground, 
Mrs.  F and  myself  had  the  task  of  organiz 
ing  this  barbaric  household,  and  of  bringing  it 
into  the  forms  of  civilized  life.  We  commenced 
with  the  washing. 

Before  the  time  of  our  coming,  it  had  been 
customary  for  the  gentlemen  to  give  their 
washing  into  the  hands  of  Minnah  or  Judy,  to 
be  done  at  such  times  and  in  such  form  and 
manner  as  best  suited  them. 

The  manner  which  did  suit  them  best  was 
to  put  all  the  articles  to  soak  indefinitely,  in 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.    307 

soapsuds,  till  such  time  as  to  them  seemed  good. 
On  being  pressed  for  some  particular  article,  and 
roundly  scolded  by  any  of  the  proprietors,,  they 
would  get  up  a  shirt,,  a  pair  of  drawers,  a  collar 
or  two,  with  abundant  promises  for  the  rest 
when  they  had  time. 

The  helpless  male  individuals  of  the  establish 
ments  had  no  refuge  from  the  feminine  ruses 
and  expedients,  and  the  fifty  incontrovertible 
reasons  which  were  always  on  hand  to>  prove  to 
them  that  things  could  be  done  no  other  way  than 
just  as  they  were  done ;  and,  in  fact,,  found  it 
easier  to  get  their  washing  back  again  by  bland 
ishments  than  by  bullying. 

We  ladies  announced  a  regular  washing-day, 
and  endeavored  to  explain  it  to  our  kitchen 
cabinet  ;  our  staff  consisting  of  Minnah  and 
Judy,  detailed  for  house-service. 

Judy  was  a  fat,  lazy,  crafty,  roly-poly  negress, 
the  Florida  wife  of  the  foreman  Mose,  and 


308  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

devoted  to  his  will  and  pleasure  in  hopes  to  sup 
plant  the  "  Virgin ny  "  and  "Carliny"  wives. 
Judy  said  yes  to  every  thing  we  proposed  ;  but 
Minnah  was  "kinky"  and  argumentative:  but 
finally,  when  we  represented  to  her  that  the 
proposed  arrangement  was  customary  in  good 
Northern  society,  she  gave  her  assent. 

We  first  -proceeded  to  make  a  barrel  of  soda 
washing-soap  in  .a  great  iron  sugar-kettle,  which 
stood  out  under  the  fig-trees,  and  which  had 
formerly  been  used  for  evaporating  sugar. 

Minnah  took  the  greatest  interest  in  the 
operation,  and,  when  the  soap  was  finished, 
took  the  boiling  liquid  in  pailfuls,  setting  them 
on  the  top  of  her  head,  and  marching  off  to  the 
barrel  in  the  house  with  them,  without  ever 
lifting  a  finger. 

We  screamed  after  her  in  horror,  — 

"  Minnah,  Minnah  !  If  that  should J  fall,  it 
would  kill  you  !" 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  309 

A  laugh  of  barbaric  exultation  was  the  only 
response,  as  she  actually  persisted  in  carrying 
pailful  after  pailful  of  scalding  soap  on  her  head 
till  all  was  disposed  of. 

The  next  day  the  washing  was  all  b'rought  out 

under  the  trees  and  sorted,  Mrs.  F and 

myself  presiding ;  and  soon  Minnah  and  Judy 
were  briskly  engaged  at  their  respective  tubs. 
For  half  an  hour,  "  all  went  merry  as  a  marriage- 
bell."  Judy  was  about  half  through  her  first 
tubful,  when  Mose  came  back  from  his  morn 
ing  turn  in  the  fields,  and  summoned  her  to  come 
home  and  get  his  breakfast.  With  Judy's  very 
leisurely  and  promiscuous  habits  of  doing  busi 
ness,  this  took  her  away  for  half  the  forenoon. 
Meanwhile,  Minnah  murmured  excessively  at 
being  left  alone,  'and  more  especially  at  the  con 
tinuous  nature  of  the  task. 

Such  a  heap  of  clothes  to  be  washed  all  in 
one  day!  It  was  a  mountain  of  labor  in  Minnah's 


3 10  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

imagination ;  and  it  took  all  our  eloquence  and 
our  constant  presence  to  keep  her  in  good 
humor.  We  kept  at  Minnah  as  the  only  means 
of  keeping  her  at  her  work. 

But,  after  all,  it  was  no  bad  picnic  to  spend  a 
day  in  the  open  air  in  the  golden  spring-time  of 
Florida.  The  birds  were  singing  from  every 
covert ;  the  air  was  perfectly  intoxicating  in 
its  dreamy  softness  ;  and  so  we  spread  a  camp 
for  the  baby,  who  was  surrounded  by  a  retinue 
of  little  giggling,  adoring  negroes,  and  gave 
ourselves  up  to  the  amusement  of  the  scene. 
Our  encampment  was  under  the  broad  leaves 
of  a  group  of  fig-trees ;  and  we  hung  our 
clothes  to  dry  on  the  sharp  thorns  of  a  gigantic 
clump  of  Yucca  gloriosa,  which  made  an  admira 
ble  clothes-frame. 

By  night,  with  chuckling  admiration,  Minnah 
surveyed  a  great  basketful  of  clean  clothes,  — 
all  done  in  one  day. 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  311 

The  next  day  came  the  lesson  on  ironing ;  and 
the  only  means  of  securing  Minnah  and  Judy 
to  constant  work  at  the  ironing-table  was  the 
exercise  of  our  own  individual  powers  of  enter 
tainment  and  conversation.  We  had  our  own 
table,  and  ironed  with  them  ;  and  all  went  well 
till  Judy  remembered  she  had  preparations  for 
Mose's  dinner,  and  deserted.  Minnah  kept  up 
some  time  longer ;  till  finally,  when  we  went  in 
the  next  room  on  an  errand,  she  improved  the 
opportunity  to  desert.  On  returning,  we  saw 
Minnah's  place  vacant,  a  half- finished  shirt 
lying  drying  on  the  table. 

Searching  and  calling,  we  at  last  discovered 
her  far  in  the  distance,  smoking  her  pipe,  and 
lolling  tranquilly  over  the  fence  of  a  small  en 
closure  where  were  sixteen  calves  shut  up  to 
gether,  so  that  maternal  longings  might  bring 
the  cow  mothers  home  to  them  at  night. 

"  Why,  Minnah,  what  are  you  doing  ? "  we 
said  as  we  came  up  breathless. 


3 1 2  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

"  Laws,  missis,  I  wanted  to  feed  my  calves.  I 
jest  happened  to  think  on't."  And  forthwith  she 
turned,  started  to  the  barn,  and  came  back  with 
a  perfect  hay-mow  on  her  head.  Then,  crossing 
the  fence  into  the  enclosure,  she  proceeded  to 
make  division  of  the  same  among  the  calves, 
who  tumultuously  surrounded  her.  She  patted 
one,  and  cuffed  another,  and  labored  in  a  most 
maternal  styfe  to  make  them  share  their  com 
mons  equally  ;  laughing  in  full  content  of  heart, 
and  appearing  to  have  forgotten  her  ironing- 
table  and  all  about  it. 

It  was  in  vain  to  talk.  "  She  was  tired  iron 
ing.  Did  anybody  ever  hear  of  doing  up 
all  one's  things  in  a  day  ?  Besides,  she 
wanted  to  see  her  calves  :  she  felt  just  like  it." 
And  Minnah  planted  her  elbows  on  the  fence, 
and  gazed  and  smoked  and  laughed,  and  talked 
baby-talk  to  her  calves,  till  we  were  quite  pro 
voked  ;  yet  we  could  not  help  laughing.  In  fact, 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  313 

long  before  that  day  was  done,  we  were  out  of 
breath,  used  up  and  exhausted  with  the  strain 
of  getting  the  work  out  of  Minnah.  It  was  the 
more  tantalizing,  as  she  could  do  with  a  fair 
amount  of  skill  any  thing  she  pleased,  and 
could  easily  have  done  the  whole  in  a  day  had 
she  chosen. 

It  is  true,  she  was  droll  enough,  in  a  literary 
and  artistic  view,  to  make  one's  fortune  in  a 
magazine  or  story ;  but,  when  one  had  a  house  to 
manage,  a  practical  humorist  is  less  in*  point 
than  in  some  other  places. 

The  fact  was,  Minnah,  like  all  other  women 
bred  to  the  fields,  abominated  housework  like  a 
man.  She  could  do  here  and  there,  and  by  fits 
and  starts  and  snatches  ;  but  to  go  on  in  any 
thing  like  a  regular  domestic  routine  was  simply 
disgusting  in  her  eyes.  So,  after  a  short  period 
of  struggle,  it  was  agreed  that  Minnah  was  to 
go  back  to  field-work,  where  she  was  one  of  the 


3 14  PALMETTO-LEA  VES. 

most  valuable  hands  ;  and  a  trained  house- 
servant  was  hired  from  Jacksonville. 

Minnah  returned  to  the  field  with  enthusi 
asm.  We  heard  her  swinging  her  long  arms, 
and  shouting  to  her  gang,  "  Come  on,  den,  boys 
and  gals  !  I'm  for  the  fields  !  I  was  born,  I  was 
raised,  I  was  fairly  begot,  in  de  fields  ;  and  I 
don't  want  none  o'  your  housework." 

In  time  we  obtained  a  cook  from  Jacksonville, 
trained,  accomplished,  neat,  who  made  beauti 
ful  bread,  biscuit,  and  rolls,  and  was  a  comfort 
to  our  souls. 

But  this  phoenix  was  soon  called  for  by  the 
wants  of  the  time,  and  was  worth  more  than  we 
could  give,  and  went  from  us  to  enjoy  forty 
dollars  per  month  as  cook  in  a  hotel. 

Such  has  been  the  good  fortune  of  all  the 
well-trained  house-servants  since  emancipation. 
They  command  their  own  price. 

The   untrained   plantation    hands    and    their 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  315 

children  are  and  will  be  just  what  education 
may  make  them. 

The  education  which  comes  to  them  from  the 
State  from  being  freemen  and  voters,  able  to 
make  contracts,  choose  locations,  and  pursue  their 
own  course  like  other  men,  is  a  great  deal ;  and 
it  is  operating  constantly  and  efficaciously. 

We  give  the  judgment  of  a  practical  farmer 
accustomed  to  hire  laborers  at  the  North  and 
the  South  ;  and,  as  a  result  of  five  years'  e^x- 
periment  on  this  subject,  he  says  that  the  negro 
laborer  carefully  looked  after  is  as  good  as  any 
that  can  be  hired  at  the  North. 

In  some  respects  they  are  better.  As  a  class 
they  are  more  obedient,  better  natured,  mare 
joyous,  and  easily  satisfied. 

The  question  as  to  whether,  on  the  whole,  the 
negroes  are  valuable  members  of  society,  and 
increasing  the  material  wealth  of  the  State,  is, 
best  answered  by  the  returns  of  the  Freedman's 


3 1 6  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

Savings   and   Trust  Company,  —  *an   institution 
under  the  patronage  of  government. 

The  report  of  this  institution  for  the  year 
1872  is  before  us  ;  and  from  this  it  appears  that 
negro  laborers  in  the  different  Southern  States 
have  deposited  with  this  Trust  Company  this 
year  the  sum  of  THIRTY- ONE  MILLION  TWO 

HUNDRED  AND    SIXTY  THOUSAND  FOUR    HUNDRED 
AND   NINETY-NINE    DOLLARS. 

Jhe  report  also  shows,  that,  year  by  year,  the 
amount  deposited  has  increased.  Thus,  in  1 867, 
it  was  only  $1,624,883  ;  in  1868  it  was  three 
million  odd;  in  1869  it  was  seven  million  and 
odd  ;  in  1870,  twelve  million  and  odd  ;  in  1871, 
nineteen  million  and  odd. 

These  results  are  conclusive  to  the  fact,  that, 
as  a  body,  the  Southern  laborers  are  a  thrifty, 
industrious,  advancing  set  ;  and  such  as  they 
are  proved  by  the  large  evidence  of  these 
figures,  such  we  have  observed  them  in  our 
more  limited  experience. 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  317 

Our  negro  laborers,  with  all  the  inevitable  de 
fects  of  imperfect  training,  ignorance,  and  the 
negligent  habits  induced  by  slavery,  have  still 
been,  as  a  whole,  satisfactory  laborers.  They 
keep  their  contracts,  do  their  work,  and  save 
their  earnings.  We  could  point  to  more  than 
one  black  family  about  us  steadily  growing  up 
to  competence  by  industry  and  saving. 

All  that  is  wanted  to  supply  the  South  with  a 
set  of  the  most  desirable  skilled  laborers  is 
simply  education.  The  negro  children  are 
bright ;  they  can  be  taught  any  thing :  and  if 
the  whites,  who  cannot  bear  tropical  suns  and 
fierce  extremes,  neglect  to  educate  a  docile  race 
who  both  can  and  will  bear  it  for  them,  they 
throw  away  their  best  chance  of  success  in  a 
most  foolish  manner.  No  community  that  prop 
erly  and  carefully  educates  the  negro  children 
now  growing  up  need  complain  of  having  an 
idle,  thriftless,  dishonest  population  about  them. 


3 1 8  PALME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

Common  schools  ought  to  prevent  that.  The 
teaching  in  the  common  schools  ought  to  be 
largely  industrial,  and  do  what  it  can  to  prepare 
the  children  to  get  a  living  by  doing  something 
well.  Practical  sewing,  cutting  and  fitting,  for 
girls,  and  the  general  principles  of  agriculture 
for  boys,  might  be  taught  with  advantage. 

The  negroes  are  largely  accused  of  being 
thievish  and  dishonest. 

A  priori  we  should  expect  that  they  would  be 
so.  We  should  imagine,  that  to  labor  without 
wages  for  generations,  in  a  state  of  childish 
dependence,  would  so  confuse  every  idea  of 
right  and  wrong,  that  the  negro  would  be  a 
hopeless  thief. 

Our  own  experience,  however,  is  due  in  jus 
tice  to  those  we  have  known. 

On  the  first  plantation,  as  we  have  said,  were 
about  thirty  families  from  all  the  different 
Southern  States.  It  might  be  supposed  that 
they  were  a  fair  sample. 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  319 

Now  as  to  facts.  It  was  the  habit  of  the 
family  to  go  to  bed  nights,  and  leave  the  house 
doors  unlocked,  and  often  standing  wide  open. 
The  keys  that  locked  the  provisions  hung  up  in 
a  very  accessible  place  ;  and  yet  no  robbery  was 
ever  committed.  We  used  to  set  the  breakfast- 
table  over  night,  and  leave  it  with  all  the  silver 
upon  it,  yet  lost  nothing. 

In  our  own  apartment  we  put  our  rings  and 
pins  on  our  toilet-cushions,  as  had  been  our 
habit.  We  had  bits  of  bright  calico  and  ribbons, 
and  other  attractive  articles,  lying  about ;  and 
the  girl  that  did  the  chamber -work  was 
usually  followed  by  a  tribe  of  little  curious, 
observing  negroes  :  and  yet  we  never  missed 
so  much  as  a  shred  of  calico.  Neither  was  this 
because  they  did  not  want  them  ;  for  the  gift  of 
a  strip  of  calico  or  ribbon  would  throw  them 
into  raptures  :  it  was  simply  that  they  did  not 
steal. 


3  2O  PA  LME  TTO-LEA  VES. 

Again  :  nothing  is  more  common,  when  we 
visit  at  the  North,  than  to  have  the  complaint 
made  that  fruit  is  stolen  out  of  gardens.  We 
have  had  people  tell  us  that  the  vexation  of 
having  fruit  carried  off  was  so  great,  that  it 
took  away  all  the  pleasure  of  a  garden. 

Now,  no  fruit  is  more  beautiful,  more  tempt 
ing,  than  the  orange.  We  live  in  an  orange- 
grove  surrounded  by  negroes,  and  yet  never  have 
any  trouble  of  this  kind.  We  have  often  seen 
bags  of  fine  oranges  lying  all  night  under  the 
trees  ;  and  yet  never  have  we  met  with  any  per 
ceptible  loss.  Certainly  it  is  due  to  the  negroes 
that  we  have  known  to  say  that  they  are  above 
the  average  of  many  in  the  lower  classes  at 
the  North  for  honesty. 

We  have  spoken  now  for  the  average  negro  : 
what  we  have  said  is  by  no  means  the  best  that 
can  with  truth  be  said  of  the  finer  specimens 
among  them. 


THE  LABORERS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  321 

t 

We  know  some  whose  dignity  of  character, 
delicacy,  good  principle,  and  generosity,  'are 
admirable,  and  more  to  be  admired  because 
these  fine  traits  have  come  up  under  the  most 
adverse  circumstances. 

In  leaving  this  subject,  we  have  only  to  repeat 
our  conviction,  that  the  prosperity  of  the  more 
Southern  States  must  depend,  in -a  large  degree, 
on  the  right  treatment  and  education  of  the 
negro  population. 


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